Fire
by Imyoshi
Summary: There was no difference between a Hero and a Villain.
1. Fire

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of Kim Possible or RWBY.

* * *

 **Fire**

 **By: Imyoshi**

Roman Torchwick wasn't someone so easily impressed by the little things. He was avaricious, resilient, alluring, untrustworthy, and above all else, devilishly smart. When it came to surviving, he knew, as others would say, when to hold them and when to fold them. A handy trait picked up from a life of crime. Who wouldn't if they played the game long enough? When life gave him lemons, he suckered some poor sap into buying them for three times the market value. Hard work and an honest day's pay be damned.

So when life gave him lemons again, he was surprised, and mildly impressed, that someone somehow managed to turn their buy into a profit of their own, little as it might be.

Now Roman Torchwick didn't believe in luck—hating the notion of trusting one's odds on superstition and chance—he believed in profit. Numbers and paper were the only real object worth pursuing in life, but maybe he might give this whole luck gimmick another crack before calling it quits. Why fold when there was a straight on the table and he was hiding a king in his sleeve? The odds just might be in his favor, after all.

...

Not all days of a Master Criminal were filled with random car chases or heist that have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Some days were dull and uneventful, while others were interesting and nauseating bright. Others were like the flip of a coin, left to chance. Today the weather looked grim and nasty.

His kind of weather.

Walking through the streets of the poorer district of Vale, Roman strolled with a purpose even if said purpose had no actual purpose. It was important to keep up appearances, and appearing intimidating played many important roles. Looking weak and lost could get people eaten alive down here in the slums, not like anyone would dare cross paths with the Master Criminal. He held a reputation that preceded him, but old habits died hard.

His mood might've been called content if it wasn't for the two little devils pestering him, accompany him on one of his very few days off. They latched onto him like debt collectors, refusing to abandon him and find better things to do with their time. Why? The knowledge was lost to him. Asking would prove unfavorable, too. Knowing them, they would latch onto his disinterest in them and ground away at his nerves till nothing remained but the barrel of his cane pointed directly at their very weak hearts. And even though he would find no greater joy in pulling the trigger, it would prove detrimental to his overall health.

"So... what are we doing here?" Devil number one asked, a.k.a. Mercury Black, scouting the few people lingering about. "There can't possibly anything entertaining around these dumps."

Roman smirked, twirling his trusty cane on his index finger. "I'm scouting for possible talent."

"Talent?" Mercury's partner in crime scoffed, clicking her teeth in a superior way. "What kind of talent would we find out here in this part of town?"

Roman fixed Emerald Sustrai a light glare, patting the girl on her mint-green head before she could brush away his hand. Ah, Master Thief she may be, but she was still fairly young—both of them were. They didn't understand that all talent came from the bottom of the barrel. That was where people were desperate to climb out and escape their hellish prison, and the only feasible way to accomplish said goal was the reliance of unique and a rather useful set of skills.

Skills only nurtured in hellholes such as the poor district of Vale.

"Sorry." They both knew Roman wasn't sorry. "If this part of town lacks your tall buildings and diverse culture you've come to love so much, but no one is forcing you to be here. I could handle this perfectly on my own."

"Right..." she said with a roll her eyes, lacking any sort of trust in him. "Like you could accomplish anything on your own."

"This isn't a heist or a job, there's no reason for either of you two to follow me."

"We're bored." Mercury laughed bitterly. He was checking out the urban area in a weak interest. "Cinder's got nothing for us to do. Thought we tag along and see what lame adventure you've set yourself up on."

Roman answered that with another rub of Emerald's hair before the latter could stop him. A soft growl came from the young thief, but he ignored her attempts at looking cute, keeping his eyes open for anything strange to happen. Anything at all. Never could be too careful down here. Desperation could make a man do suicidal things.

Would he rather be free of the children? Of course! Nothing would liven up his day better. Did the force dub luck smile down on him? Nope! The shrewd woman never had and probably never would. Such was the fate of Roman Torchwick and the thing he called a life. Didn't mean too much to him, anyway. He'd always made his own luck.

Enjoying the small silence, for however long that could last, Roman's interest was peaked ever so slightly when Emerald moved faster than him to get ready to accidentally crash into an unsuspecting blond with messy unkempt hair, grayish dark cargo pants, and a wrinkled, dirtied black shirt that was heading their way, minding his own business. The poor kid didn't know what was about to hit him—literally.

 _Crash_!

It was nothing special. Just a simple shove of the shoulders before Emerald stealthily reached down into the teen's cargo pants and pulled something out before the sap was none the wiser. She fell down on her butt, hiding the item in her back pocket as she fell upon her hand, looking like a total klutz, really selling the act for the poor fool to fall hook, line, and sinker for.

Now it was time for the show.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Emerald played the fools quite well, apologizing like one. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"Hey, no big!" The stranger was all smiles, reaching down to grab Emerald's hand and help her up. He did it with little effort. "Sorry for crashing into you. It's both our faults."

The teen lightly patted her on the back as a show of good health when she stood up, fixing her a smile larger than hers and walked away without a care in the world. He even whistled a cheerful tune, almost skipping really. It was enough to gauge a heaving reaction out of the Master Thief. Although the little devils may have missed it, Roman didn't.

That smile on the young man's face was anything but grand. He personally knew that look, he himself had set that look on others from time to time. The look of a defeated person weighed heavily in those guy's chocolaty eyes. Someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Then again, the look wasn't too uncommon in a place littered to the edge of despair and sadness. Nonetheless, it was an odd treat to find someone so kind down here in the slums. One would expect from a crueler environment, crueler people. Curiously enough, that appeared to not always be the case.

Waiting to turn a corner to check the goods, Roman's memory of the teen died as he eagerly awaited to see what was hidden in his wallet. Common thievery one-o'-one, no thief pulled out the fruit of their labors when the target was still in range. Only a fool would pull off that stunt.

Finally turning that pesky corner, Mercury and Roman stop to see Emerald reach into her back pocket with a look of smug arrogance—for all about three seconds—then all her arrogance was washed away in a heartbeat. Her eyes widened as she searched through her back pockets a few times before hastily checking her front pockets in a high panic. Both the males were stunned as Emerald furiously swam into all her pockets until she'd exhausted the fruit of her labors and ran off to where she bumped into that teen.

It was there she spotted her wallet on the floor, clear as day.

Both Roman and Mercury didn't have a word to say as Emerald reached down and opened her wallet. "What the hell?!"

Encouraged by her screams of outrage and bloody murder, Mercury and Roman glance over Emerald's shoulder and see a note where all her lien was supposed to be, written in clear haste, yet, the message was obvious, even in the poor weathering.

Your technique could use a little work. Better luck next time! R.S.

Time skipped over them for another three seconds before Mercury burst out laughing at the sheer irony of everything. Even Roman joined in on the fun, more so when Emerald started yelling at them to stop, to which he did, but Mercury did not. He only laughed harder, actually leaning on the wall to support his bouts of laughter, too concerned to keep his breathing even and footing steady.

Mercury's legs might actually give out on him.

Snickering, Roman ignored the two to pick up the paper Emerald dropped on the floor as she launched a frenzy of insults Mercury's way. Of course, he brushed her aside, almost choking on his lack of exhaustion, but fought on just for the sheer idea of someone one-upping Emerald, supposed Master Thief, at her own game. He was never going to let her live this down. Not until his dying days. Which might be sooner that Mercury believed if he didn't let up on the laughter.

Rereading the note, Roman's visible eye twinkled in absolute mischief as his evil smile grew, letting his mind ponder over the subtle implications of this little discovery just now while the children battled it out. What those two saw was a guy who got one over their sweet little Emerald. Typical bratty behavior. What Roman Torchwick saw was endless possibilities and even greater talent. Just like when Monty gave him lemons, Roman saw a potential profit to be made, and it was all thanks to Emerald pushing her luck just a tad too far.

Maybe, just maybe, there was more to this thing called dumb luck than Roman first believed.

...

Using trustworthy sources, it took a little over a week for Roman to dwell about the whereabouts of his potential friend. Luck kept shining down upon him as Cinder was none the wiser since Emerald was too ashamed and scared to admit that someone got the drop on her in thievery. Mercury didn't rat on her because blackmail material was so hard to come by these days, and Roman knew Cinder wouldn't believe him without either of the two kids backing him up. Besides, he rather she didn't know of a potential ally or enemy. The less she knew about anything, the better for Roman Torchwick.

Technicalities aside, wouldn't it be nice to have a Master Thief of his very own, someone to call his teammate? Sure, he had Neo, ice-cream lover and thief extraordinaire, but Cinder had two subordinates. Twice the amount as him! Roman didn't like it when the odds weren't stacked in his favor. Like the hidden ace in a gambler's sleeve, everyone played for keeps.

So he had called in a few favors and had the underworld be on the lookout for a potential blond wearing cargo pants and a black shirt somewhere in the streets of Vale's lower class section. Not much to go on and very unreliable information, but apparently enough because one of Junior's men saw his target hanging around the docks, actually attempting to fish in the questionable water.

Roman wasn't too sure if that was a cover-up or an actual attempt at catching fish. Fishing there? That was a poor man's game. Had to be a cover. Either way, he got the information he needed and quickly drove to the docks, cutting corners and running all the red lights he fashioned. Lounging beside him, Roman's partner and right-hand man, eh, woman tagged along, smiling in a way that would send a weaker man to his knees.

She was the only one who knew of Roman's master plan, always on his side no matter what obstacles lie in front of them. Be it good or bad, Neo was the only person he could trust in this shady business or in life in general. One day he'd find a way to pay her back for her support, even if she insisted that he'd already given her so much and more. She was the only debt Roman didn't plan to skip out on.

Sliding their disguise ice-cream truck into a vacant parking spot, he whistled as they got out, not caring he parked in a red zone. There were bigger fish to fry than the troublesome law. Time to find a possible left-hand to add to the ranks of Team Roman!

Tracking his cane on the floor, the two criminals entered the docks, looking for his mark. Junior's goon did mention he was fishing, so they head closer to the body of water. It wasn't until a few minutes of fruitless searching that Neo spotted him resting on the back of a tanker with an oddly nice looking fishing rod. His eyes were closed and legs arched half up, but his breathing told of him being awake, obviously waiting for his line to bite, or to run. Without blinking, Roman knew that was the posture of a trained person.

Now the real fun part was figuring out what type of training.

How deliciously delightful!

Making their way toward the stationed teen, Roman was pleasantly surprised to find the guy turning his head to meet their presence, even against the softness of their footsteps and lull of the nearby ships masking most of the sound.

Definitely traits of a trained person.

"Can I help you?"

Judging by the way his eyes seemed solely trained on Roman; the criminal knew the kid recognized him from the week before. Yet, oddly enough, he made no move to get up. Not yet. Gauging the situation before jumping right into the frying pan. Just another quality of a trained and experienced body.

Neo was looking at the kid with almost the same look as Emerald, judging him based on his muddy appearance, the unkempt ruff of messy blond hair, and wrinkled clothes. She practically fell into the same false sense of security dear old Emerald fell into, but fortunately, she remembered what Roman said, and kept her troublesome thoughts at bay. Never judge a book by its cover. Another quip that Roman drilled into her.

Pulling out a piece of paper from his coat pocket, Roman threw the kid the paper with his writing on it. "Yes, you can. You're the one who stole from one of my... lesser subordinates last week. Or do I have the wrong man?"

He trailed off and the blond picked up the paper before throwing out to the calm ocean, lightly tightening his hold on the fishing rod. "And what? Baggage issues? Here for revenge?"

There was a hint of amusement in his voice, almost like this wasn't the first time revenge had crossed his path. Even Roman might've believed he was joking if it wasn't for the way the blond now held the fishing rod between his fingers in a somewhat tight vice grip, ready to swing at a given moment.

The smirk never left Roman's face. "On the contrary, I've come to thank you for pushing down a peg. She needed to be reminded that anyone could push her into the dirt. It was a good lesson. One I've had trouble trying to get to stick. But your little stunt fixed that. And I gotta admit, it was funny."

The grin on the kid's face never fell, but he did lower the fishing rod back to its original spot. "You came all this way to tell me that?"

Roman's smirk grew. He knew fairly well that wasn't the reason he came here for. At least not entirely.

Good.

"Well, since we are on the subject, I've come to personally ask you something." He lingered, leaning on the tanker. "Where'd you learn to pickpocket like that? Even I didn't notice your sleight of hand. That's some serious skill you got."

The kid tensed up, looking away from Roman and Neo to continue on fishing. The Master Criminal held back a vile comment on the tip of his tongue, clicking his teeth silently together. Maybe another approach was in order because something in Roman's gut told him that he couldn't catch this kid if he suddenly decided to hightail it, and he had called in too many favors for this deal to head south. Best to play the game defensively for a bit. Real in him with offers of temptation.

Now, what were his temptations?

Getting off the tanker, Roman pushed his hands out. "Okay, okay, I see the problem! Why should you tell me anything when I haven't even introduced myself? Fair enough. As an act of goodwill, I'll go first. The name's Roman Torchwick, and this here is my companion, Neo." Neo did a small wave. "And yours is?"

Not relaxing his shoulders, the teen eventually answered. "... Ron Stoppable."

Roman paused, losing his smirk, sure to hell he'd never heard of that surname before. Of all the names out there, he had a generally good grip on the family trees of many families out there. The good and the bad, including any that remotely sounded bizarre, but never before had he heard of the Stoppable family. That wasn't exactly a name sounding remotely common or normal. Roman knew he would've noticed that as a family name if he ever saw it in a passing contact, even as a footnote. Things weren't adding up.

Crime was a game meant for the intelligent. Not knowing something left a bitter taste in the player's mouth.

Collecting his thoughts, he tried to smile at Ron, not exactly an easy task considering the kid didn't bite. "So, Ron, mind telling me where you picked up those hands of yours? I'm oddly curious to know. Might make a stop there myself after lunch."

Silent for a moment, Ron got up and pulled out the fishing rod with a large tuna fish attached to his line, before placing the poor thing into a nearby bucket of water. The ocean was calm under the sun and Ron looked out to the vast horizon, wind breezing past his unkempt hair with a gaze surprisingly strong for a teen his age, almost as if he'd seen the impossible and lived to tell the tale.

"Would you believe me if I told you I'm from some other dimension? Where I was part of a crime-fighting team who regularly stopped bad guys from taking over the world, only to have some freaky ninja magic transport me here to this world called Remnant? Or maybe that I've been stuck in this whacked out world for about a month? Heck, for all I know I'm not in some different dimension. Maybe a different planet or time period. It's all so confusing."

More silence followed after and only the gentle sound of nearby birds and the ocean filled the void. The fish in the bucket moved in circles, adding another part to the harmony, diffusing any hostility in the area. Then Roman was chuckling to himself. His partner hid her silent smile behind her palm, looking positively amused at Ron's clever joke. Nothing could save the serenity from breaking underneath their tight laughter, and Ron held back a sigh as they probably thought his story nothing more than a web of lies.

What else was new?

Calming himself down, Roman grinned in an evil light. "Fine, don't tell me. I can understand keeping the art of your trade a secret. No honor among thieves, am I right? That's no problem with me or Neo, but onto a new matter. I've got a proposition for you. What would you say to putting those skills to better use?"

"If you're talking about stealing from other people, then you can forget it. I'm not a thief."

The criminal mastermind was amused. "But you stole from my little friend earlier? What would you call that?"

"That was different." Ron defended with a cross of his arms. "I only stole from her because she tried to steal from me, okay! I don't like stealing. It's wrong."

"Yet you know the skill?" Roman pestered, nudging him with his cane. "No one knows how to pickpocket for good reasons."

The sidekick was tempted to tell him pickpocketing henchmen to stop total world domination was a justice cause, but they would probably think of it as another funny joke. They already thought he was a thief by some degree. Even if Ron insisted that was his backstory, he doubted they would believe him now. Not entirely at least. The very few strangers he did bother telling thought he was some sort of comedian and others looked at him like he was mentally insane. Others simply didn't care and walked away, muttering things Ron hadn't care to hear at the time.

The sidekick had eventually given up altogether.

Still, in his mind, he had justified the moment he stole from that girl. Stealing from a thief was alright in some context of the rules. Like that guy in tights. Robin something! She must've stolen the money from some other person, so the money already didn't belong to her. And truth be told, he was hungry. How could he resist the urge to beat her at her own game and reap in on the rewards? Plus, it was a great dishonor if a thief stole from a ninja or something along those lines. Point being, he'd trained as a ninja, if only for a short period of time, there was no way he was just going to let her win.

Pride was definitely a motivator in the grand scheme of things.

"I don't work with bad guys." Ron instead settled to say, hoping that was enough for Roman. He began to walk away from the duo. "Sorry."

Roman clicked his teeth, not liking the idea of having come this far to simply walk away empty-handed. A fair number of his contacts had been used in the plan. There had to be something to rope Ron Stoppable into his line of business. Anything to get the kid to rest on the other side of the pillow. Just the idea having Ron under his wing alone would peeve Emerald to no end, and he simply couldn't let something like that slide between his fingers.

Not without some insurance fraud.

Taking his attire into account, the Master Criminal raised his voice. "Look, it's a tough world out there. You gotta find some way to survive. I'm offering you an out."

"I'm doing just fine on my own!" Ron yelled from over his shoulder.

Of course Roman didn't believe him. How could he? "Really? Because your outfit speaks otherwise? It doesn't take a genius to figure out you're sleeping on the streets. You kept that money because you needed it. You're starving; all of us here can see that."

Ron's hero will wavered a bit. Not much, but a subtle shift made itself known. Maybe when he had just landed in this world, he would've just blocked out Roman's rambling and kept at walking without a second glance, but the month had been terribly long and arduous. He had long since given up going back home. His resolve just wasn't there. Not anymore. Only a deep, empty feeling remained that clawed at his chest, killing the sidekick slowly with each passing day.

Ron Stoppable didn't even know what he was fighting for anymore.

Loneliness could break or crack even the strongest of spirits with enough time, no matter how resilient or powerful their fortress of immunity claimed to be and his will was breaking more each day.

Not giving up, Roman followed Ron with Neo trailing right behind him. "If you needed money so bad, then why didn't you get a job like some goody-two-shoes?" Ron's subtle grip on the fishing rod was enough to answer Roman's question. "You can't, can you? Let me guess, no identification? No records? And you're too skinny for construction work. Or are you trying to hide from the law?"

Ron Stoppable kept on walking, trying to block out Roman's pestering. He almost turned the corner of the tanker until Roman threw one more line out to reel him back in.

"Alright, kid. How about I up the ante? I'll throw in a room and food on the house. I saw what you did and with skills like that, you're too valuable to let go to waste. How about we make a deal? Something? Give me something to work with here." Roman wasn't lying. Anyone who could out-pickpocket Emerald Sustrai definitely outplayed a large pool of potential thieves. Ron Stoppable was one of those people. "Throw a guy a bone."

Halting his movements, Ron weakly sighed, finally turning halfway to meet his gaze. "I don't want to hurt innocent people."

He was so hungry and tired of sleeping outside that the offer of a roof over his head sounded too good to be true. Before, on various missions, sleeping outside was okay. It had to be done. But he wasn't on a mission anymore; he was stuck in a world that was slowly draining the life out of him. There was no one to watch his back and each day felt longer than the last. Some nights he stared up at the broken moon and wished to be back home where the moon made sense and life didn't hate him.

"I can't promise you that." Roman said after a pause. He wasn't an idiot and neither was Ron. They both know what was on the line here. "All I can give you is food and a place to sleep in exchange for those hands of yours. Like you said, we're criminals, not heroes. Innocent people will probably get hurt."

The sidekick glanced down at his fishing rod, having a silent conversation with the tool before eventually his stomach and sore body made the decision for him. He would've kept walking away if not for Roman's blunt honesty. The criminal didn't try to sugarcoat his words or mislead him with false promises. The man inexplicably said he couldn't promise that and pointed out in acute detail of his motives. Whatever cards he kept up his sleeve remained his. Roman just made sure to let Ron know he had them. So generally speaking, the sidekick shouldn't be surprised one little bit when the odds tipped in Roman's favor.

It was honesty in the falsest sense of the word and Ron Stoppable respected the man for saying it.

Thinking the offer over, he peered down at the trapped fish in the new world Ron whisked it to. The sidekick silently wondered what the little guy would trade to escape the prison it'd been trapped in. He was in the same boat. Only his prison was filled with strange people and was far larger, but still a prison nonetheless. One he couldn't escape from. Maybe not yet, maybe not ever, but he still had to try. There wasn't a point in giving up. Not while he was still breathing and kicking.

Closing his eyes, he let his shoulder fall, flashing back to old periods in his life to unearth his answer.

He wasn't surprised at how easy it was to consider Roman's offer. He'd been a bad guy once, and Kim told him he wasn't so bad at it. Maybe it was time to hang up the hero boots and try on the villain ones once more, just to keep himself off the streets. Life wasn't giving the sidekick any breaks. Handouts weren't coming his way anytime soon. He wasn't lying about freaky ninja magic sending him here to Remnant. Ninjas weren't exactly known for their honesty. They were mercenaries. Plain and simple.

So in short, Ron Stoppable could either be a sidekick or mercenary. All depending on how the sitch was looked at. "You could tell me more over some food. Of course, you're buying."

Roman grinned, lighting up a cigar from his coat pocket.

...

Driving around in Roman's ice-cream truck, Ron settled in the middle of the seat, a little peeved that there was no said ice-cream in the actual truck. A clear ripoff if he'd ever seen one. Luckily for him, his attention was captured by the tiny girl sitting next to him and her totally bodacious hair and eyes. At the time of their little meeting, he didn't really have the time to appreciate her fascinating looks.

Now, however, there was plenty of time to gawk at her amazing beauty and appetizing appearance. "That's the badicalest hair I've ever seen. It's so amazing! And the colors are so out of this world! You're like a walking ice-cream cone! And who doesn't love ice-cream!"

Neo absorbed the attention like a hungry sponge, enjoying the sound of his voice complimenting her on her perfect eyes and beautiful hair. It was nice to get some attention, and not the kind that looked at her and thought what the hell, but the kind that was all flattery and honest. She may not know what the word badical meant and might be a stickler for honesty, but his innocent smile was enough for her to let it slide. Compliments were always welcomed. Her ego always had room for one more.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

"She's mute..." Roman answered while wondering more about Ron's other possible talents. "So, kid, what brings you down here to our neck of the woods, anyway? How'd you end up in the big, bad forest?"

Ron peered out the window. "Uh? Aren't we in a city?"

"It's a figure of speech."

The sidekick leaned back on the seat. "Yea, English, not my strongest subject."

Roman still wasn't sure if Ron Stoppable was playing him, but the kid had an honest face. No wonder Emerald fell hook, line, and sinker for his innocent bystander act. He, too, probably would've fallen victim if he had targeted Ron for a quick pickup like clueless Emerald. Not to say the same results wouldn't have happened. Roman would've searched for the kid high and low with an equally, if not greater passion if it had. So in the end, Fate had its claws on Ron from the start. Roman just so happened to pull him out from the claws and into his.

The kid knew this fairly well.

"How about we get down to business then, shall we?" Roman parked the vehicle, not noticing a pair of teenagers spotting his ice-cream truck from across the street. "What I want from you is to do what you did to my associate, but on other people. Think you can handle that?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not unless you want to live on the streets again. I'm running a professional scheme here and I can't have—" Ron coughed suddenly, not looking impressed and Roman glared. "What? Got something you want to share with the class, Stoppable?"

Years of Ron bad guy hunting and villain stopping came into play. "Well, now that you asked." Ron pretended not to hear Roman's _scoff_. "You say professional, but you're driving an ice-cream truck. Seriously, your disguise vehicle is an ice-cream truck? Ice-cream truck! Stop me when you catch my drift. Ice-cream truck! Ice. Cream. Truck."

Roman saw no problem. "Your point?"

"It's cliché." Ron deadpanned.

"It's a classic."

"That's just another way of saying cliché!"

"I thought English wasn't your subject?" Ron's expression actually hardened, hating how dumb some villains could be. This was one of the few things that made him angry, and no Master Criminal was going to tell him otherwise. Not now and most definitely not ever. Roman, on the other hand, was quite taken to his new friend's sudden mood change. A serious face Ron Stoppable had some bite. "Look... Ron... it was all Neo's idea!"

Ron turned to her, throwing his hands out toward the entire truck. "Was this your idea?" She nodded stubbornly, thinking of her traitorous friend. "Then you're cliché." Neo made stabbing motions at his stomach, but the sidekick had seen worse threats coming from freelance henchmen. "This disguise truck is terrible. Terrible!"

Resting on the steering wheel, Roman tapped his fingers on the leather. "Okay then, smart guy. If you're such an expert at the fine art of reconnaissance, then what's your ideal disguise vehicle be? I'm just dying to know."

Ron pretended to think it over before coating his words with sarcasm. "I don't know, something not too cliché like a mail truck. No one would think twice about stopping a mail truck or watching one. But you got kids following you around all day. Eventually, someone's gonna notice an ice-cream truck, oh, I don't know, not giving out ice-cream!"

 _Knock_! _Knock_! _Knock_!

"Ice-cream!" A cheerful voice screamed, banging repeatedly on the mini-side door. Another meeker voice joined him with a soft sigh. "Open up! I'm the ice-cream police and I've got to check and see if your ice-cream is up to code!"

Ron gestured his hands out toward the banging. "See! That would've never happened if you had a mail truck. No one, and I mean no one, cares about a mail truck. I know I don't."

Not wanting to admit that his new left-hand was indeed right, Roman checked the side mirrors and spotted a Faunus and some gloomy girl lounging at the side of the truck, one impatient and the other the opposite. It wasn't the sudden appearance of potential customers that threw him off, it was the fact Faunus have very good sight and memory, and Roman knew his face was plastered on many wanted posters around Vale. There was a good chance they've seen his mug here and there and watching an ice-cream truck suddenly take off would cause too much suspicion. Something the criminal mastermind definitely couldn't afford right now. Not while he was trying to keep Ron Stoppable here a secret from his backbreaking boss.

"Damn it!" Roman glared at the mirror before sliding down into his seat. Both Neo and Ron looked down at him, blinking at their boss's weird action. "Get rid of them. But don't draw any attention to yourselves!"

Neo and Ron look at each other and then the slide-in-wall with two totally different ideas. Neo's idea consisted of at least ten different law-breaking actions while Ron's was way more practical and more law-abiding—Yin and Yang essentially.

Throwing his head back, the sidekick sighed and plastered a fake smile before he jumped over to the back, reaching for his fishing rod and silently willing the device to transform into an ice-cream hat. He felt Neo's eyes focused entirely on him and even imagine the questions she had lined up, probably just dancing on the tip of her mute tongue, but for now, it was time to do what he did best, distract some potential customers.

Sliding the door open, he was greeted by a man whose abs were clear as day and blond hair even shinier than his own. He had a free tail swinging about like a monkey and a smile that looked like it hurt. Next to him was a girl who pretty much screamed out the exact opposite, dark and gloomy and probably wished to be anywhere but here.

Honestly, Ron knew exactly how she felt.

Thinking on the fly, he racked his brain for a clever lie. "I'm sorry. We just ran out of ice-cream. We were just heading back to the ice-cream place to get more."

"Aw, really?" The Monkey Faunus cried. "But I wanted a banana split!"

The other girl fixed him a cat-like glare. "Ice-cream place? You mean an ice-cream warehouse?"

Under interrogation, he was about to wing it, but the guy beat him to it. "So you don't have anything at all?"

The sidekick stared down at his leg, spotting the lone fish in his bucket swimming in circles. Poor thing was going to be supper anyways. So why the hell not? Maybe they'd want it. "We have a fish."

Amazingly enough, the girl was the one to answer, apparently captured at the notion of a real fish. "I don't eat dead fish."

Pulling out the bucket with the poor, helpless fish inside, he held it out to her. "It's alive."

The bucket was out of his hands before he could stop her, and she was hugging the object close to her chest like he was planning on stealing it from her at any given moment. He almost felt sorry for the poor thing, the fish, not her, but her interrogating eyes have fallen to the poor, helpless prey swimming in never-ending circles. Ron even swore the fish trapped inside knew its Fate more than he did. Sad little thing was swimming faster in circles, thinking such an act will save its apparent tasty soul.

"We'll take it!"

She slapped some of the currency called lien into his hand and dragged the guy away with the bucket gripped firmly in her free hand. From any point-of-view, none of that made any sense to him, and Ron Stoppable had seen a lot of things in his life that made no sense to him. Hell! This whole world made no sense to him! What was next? Fairy tales were actually real?!

Sliding the door shut, Ron grabbed his ice-cream hat and sighed a breath of relief, glad that the crisis, whatever it was, was averted. When he turned around, he was met with Neo and Roman's piercing gaze settled deeply on his ice-cream hat. Well, it was mostly Neo's with her finger pointing, Roman was just following her point of direction that happened to be his hat. She was letting out a tiny hum, waiting for Ron to do something.

Figuring out what she was pointing at, Ron lazily tossed up the hat and it came back down as a sword, floating in the middle of ice-cream truck like such feats were everyday occurrences. Both of the criminals couldn't stop staring at him, and Ron checked his neck for any sign of bugs.

"What? What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?"

Sitting up, Roman slowly blinked alongside Neo. He was at a loss for words. "Kid, you've been holding back on me. Where'd you get a toy like that?"

Looking at his weapon, Ron grabbed the sword while it was floating. "What? The Lotus Blade? Sorry, that's a trade secret. This one is staying locked up in the Stoppable vault. But I can tell you this... its magic!" They didn't believe him from their accusing stares. "Really? You guys are living in a world where people have crazy, badical powers and freaky monsters, and a sword that can transform into anything is surprising you?"

He should know. Ron had seen some freakish people around Vale. That was one of the first lessons he learned in this strange world.

"It can transform into anything?"

Ron thought about it, tapping the steel of the blade on his head, free from worry of the sword cutting him. "Well, almost anything. I can't turn it into something overly dumb like a mountain, believe me, I've tried. But weapons and smaller objects are all possible." Ron balanced the sword over his shoulder before letting it float on its own. "It's my awesome weapon and mine alone! The Lotus Blade!"

Roman accepted the challenge. "Oh really? And what makes you think we won't just try and steal your sword for our own nefarious purposes?"

Ron actually laughed at them, using the sword to balance himself, much like Roman did with his cane. "It's personally connected to me! Me and me alone! So in other words, it's unstealable. Untouchable! Impossible! Mine." He pushed the blade into Neo's hand, giving her a smug smile. "Good ahead! Try and to take it. Try to do anything with it. I dare you."

Nervous at the sidekick's blatant and out-of-this-world challenge, Neo grabbed the sword and vanished out of there in a flash. He was momentarily stunned by her sudden light show and extremely impressive power before giving her a few seconds to get as far away as possible. He had questions about what that light was but bit his tongue. Then he was counting down from three before he snapped his fingers.

Roman couldn't keep the slight widening of his eyes as Ron summoned the sword back into his hand from thin air. The sidekick was then looking at the Master Criminal.

"Watch and learn!" The sword then transformed into a blue ball and Ron chucked it out the window of the truck. He held his hand out seconds later and the ball re-materializes back into his hand. "See? Can't be stolen! Impossible to lose! We're a package deal. I rest my case."

Eyeing the magical blade, Roman calmly rested on the backseat with his arms dangling from the top, narrowing his visible eye. "If you've always had a weapon like that this entire time, then why haven't you pulled off some major heist or something to get by? Why fish and live on the streets for scraps? All I see here are possibilities and wasted talent. And that's the worst thing to waste in this world."

Losing his smile, Ron sighed. "Because that would be wrong... and I prefer to use my hands... freaky magic isn't exactly my favorite subject."

"Like English?"

"Must you rain on my parade?"

"I'm a criminal; I'm customarily bound to rain on your parade." Roman grumbled and took off his hat. "Wait, wait! We're getting off track here. Back to the dumb matter on hand, that Semblance of your is pretty darn—!"

"Semblance?" Ron blinked, scratching his hair with the hilt of his sword. "What the heck is a Semblance?"

The criminal glared. "This is no time for jokes, Ron." Ron blinked again, further scratching his head. "It's the power that comes from Aura?" Nothing. "Will you stop with the jokes already?"

"Really... I'm not joking!" Ron cried, looking at the Lotus Blade that hovered over his shoulder now. "Do you know what Aura is, Lotus Blade?"

The magical sword shook in a no gesture; hovering suspiciously toward Roman like Ron was doing, waiting for an answer. Curiosity gripped both the fools and it took the Master Criminal a second to process the information, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into. Who the hell did he pull off the streets? How could someone in this world not know what Aura was?

It was maddening.

"You seriously don't know what Aura is?" Ron shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. That only left more questions than answers. "Then what the hell is this all about?"

Ron pointed his sword at the thief. "I told you already, it's freaky ninja magic! The sword uses Mystical Monkey Powers to work and I have those powers."

Freaky ninja magic? Mystical Monkey Powers? Roman wanted to question him, but he was interrupted by Neo's reappearance into the ice-cream truck, staring wide-eyed at the sword hovering playfully over the kid's shoulder. Like the idea of it being in her hands one second and then gone the next was utterly mind-blowing to the mute. Ironically enough, that was how most people must felt after meeting her.

Distracted, she then looked at her boss, who seemed to be close to a mental breakdown before finally calming himself with a slow breathing remedy. She almost poked at his anger, finding the emotion fun to mess around with, but stopped herself. Now wasn't the time for such games. She had plenty of opportunities later to push Roman's unguarded buttons.

Pushing away the impossible questions, Roman decided to give Ron the benefit of the doubt, especially since the idea of losing a sword and power like that for the criminal was too great of a possibility. So he humored Ron, planning on later to fill Neo on all the stuff she'd missed. Still, it was bad business to have one of his hands without Aura. If what Ron was saying turned out to be true, then giving the kid Aura could only help both of them in the long-run.

Jumping over the seat, Roman pulled his sleeves in, aiming to test his questionable tale. "Matters and jokes aside, I can't have my new left-hand recruit Auraless, it's bad for business. Stay still kid. This will only take a moment." Resting his hand on top of his messy hair, Roman concentrated. "Death and life intertwine as one, rise from the ashes and seek out retribution in a timeless pursuit without an end. Liberated from Destiny's grasp and free from Fate's judgment, I free your soul, and by my hand, release thee."

Neo blinked in awe as both Ron and the Lotus Blade got covered in a shade of sapphire that brightened up the truck. Somewhere in the background, she heard the distinct calls of many monkeys before the sound melted away and she was left pondering over many questions to ask Roman, but knew now wasn't the time to ask. Not to say Roman had all the answers. Far from it. If anything, he was even more confused than she was, considering he was banking on the idea of Ron possibly lying to him about not knowing what Aura was.

Now that idea was useless.

When it was all said and done, Ron was left standing there, feeling totally different. His chest felt lighter, arms felt stronger, legs more adapt, ears and eyes acuter, and a part of his soul, he never knew was empty, had been filled. Pieces of a deformed puzzle began to fix themselves before a picture revealed itself in the form of a blue energy that hugged Ron and the Lotus Blade impossibly tight. Then the power was gone, back into the depths of his soul, alongside his other powers.

Roman had to catch his breath. "Huh? You really weren't lying? Well, ain't that something."

"Told ya! Different world here."

The criminal ignored that. "So, Stoppable, how does the power feel? Feel good?"

Ron wiggled his arms, confused. "I don't know? The same I guess. Maybe. Nothing's exploding, so that's good. My head is still screwed onto my head, so no worries there. My face doesn't feel like it's going to melt off."

Roman flicked him on the forehead. "You're a weird kid, but you're kind of growing on me."

Grinning at the man, Ron poked him with the hilt of his sword. "I've been told that."

Smirking, the thief jumped over to start the truck. "We'll test out the limits of your Aura back at our hideout."

"You still haven't told me what Aura is yet?"

He hummed. "Wow, you're really sticking to that story, aren't ya?"

"It's the only story I got and I'm sticking to it." Ron grinned easily at him, transforming the Lotus Blade into a pair of sapphire shades. "If it's not broken, don't fix it." Fair enough, Roman knew a thing or two about always sticking to the story.

"Alright then. I'll humor you. Aura is the manifestation of your soul or some crap the corporate fatheads are always spewing. Personally, I think it's a little farfetched, but I can't argue with the results. Putting it simply, it's like a force that makes you tougher, plus it throws in a random skill once you've mastered far enough. That's what we call your Semblance."

"So? It's like a superpower?"

"That's one way of saying it." Roman tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. His eyes lazily roamed over the sidekick's body. "So, since we're on the damn subject of powers and blah, blah, blah, do you have any experience with other things than pickpocketing? Like maybe fighting?"

Ron thought back to his ninja training and his years of sidekick experience, he was then thinking about everything else entirely. "Plenty! I've trained as a ninja and I'm a great spy if I do say so myself. No hideout is safe from me. You'll see."

Based on his tone, Roman knew Ron wasn't joking around. Damn that honest face of his. He was having the hardest time deciphering the kid. He was almost like a damn puzzle. Roman knew what the picture was, but he couldn't seem for the life of him put the pieces together.

"One day you're gonna have to tell me more about your past."

Ron jumped over to join Neo and Roman in the front, shrugging his shoulders easily. That grin of his grew as he waved one hand disarmingly. "I already told you about my past, it's not my fault you don't believe me."

Starting the engine, Roman narrowed his eyes cautiously, not too sure whether or not Ron Stoppable was being absolutely serious. His backstory had clearly been a lie. Different universes? Different planets? Ha! That was completely insane, wasn't it? Everything Roman knew from experience pointed to the clear no. Yet, so far, everything Roman learned in the past few minutes proved to be completely unreal. Honestly, a guy with no transcripts of anything in this day and age? Where the hell did that come from? Then there was the sword and him not having Aura. To top it off, he'd never heard of this Stoppable surname before. Experience only moved a person so far before their last option was to jump into the pit of unknown and hope for the best.

"Humor me then." Roman played, driving toward their hideout. "If you're really some crime fighter from a different dimension, then why not go straight to Vale's authorities and explain your situation? Sounds like something a goody-goody hero would do."

Ron remained silent for a moment, almost hating the question. "I did. They called me crazy and kicked me out. I've been on the streets ever since." The Master Criminal figured something like that would happen, but it only strengthened his theory that the law could use some remodeling.

Still, pointing out Vale's lousy justice system aside, Roman needed to know. "And let me guess, heroes don't steal. So even with that amazing and kind of unfair weapon of yours, you still chose to live on the streets than rob some poor chumps? Am I within the ballpark? Do tell."

Roman felt Neo's eyes on him from the reflection of the windshield, probably wondering why he was humoring Ron Stoppable's joke from before, and the answer he came up with was he didn't know why. Maybe it was because he'd seen a lot of things in this world, too many things that science and logic had no place in. If he wasn't lying to himself, he didn't quite believe in the notion of impossibility. Not entirely. Not in a Grimm-filled world. Maybe it was because some slither of emotion inside of him believed in Ron's ludicrous story.

One of the two.

"Pretty much." Ron kicked his feet back, resting the Lotus Blade on his lap. "It's been a month and I'm tired of sleeping outside. Besides, I can't call exactly call myself a crime fighter anymore. Kind of lacking the part where I fight crime."

Feeling the air shift toward a depressing atmosphere, Roman patted the kid on the back, knowing full well that every man had their limits. Eventually, they all fall into a rut and must either commit a crime to escape or worse. Luckily for Ron, crime got to him before the alternative could. Be such a shame to lose hands like his. Even a bigger shame to lose his weapon. And if Roman was being honest with himself—truthfully deceitful—he could use a person who could see the obvious problems. Not to say Roman thought Ron was up for the job, but the kid had proven his knowledge in the field of villainy with their ice-cream truck of theirs.

Which meant one of two scenarios.

Either he got lucky and looked smart for a good minute, or that crime-fighting nonsense of his checked-out. Which also meant little Ronnie here could spot the flaws in a plan like it was second nature to him because he'd seen them all before, or at least a variant of them, and knew where to hit and improve them like breathing. And knowledge—as cliché as it sounded—really was power. Far greater power than any weapon or skill could ever be. There was a reason schools taught bratty kids that brawn always lost to knowledge. For all intents and purposes, it was damn true.

Every single word of it.

Shutting away that idea, for now, Roman made sure to test Ron on his knowledge for all things villainy another time. Now they head to the hideout and plan their next move. Changing the current direction they were heading, Roman dropped the subject for now. No point in depressing his new friend out.

"So... you have a sword that can turn into anything you can imagine?" The sidekick nodded and Roman gripped the steering wheel tightly, unable to stop the evil smile blossoming on his face. "Do you know what this means, Neo?" She made a few hand gestures. "No, well yes, but the game has changed. Stealing's going to be a whole lot easier now. And our targets have just quadrupled in size, but not only that, I think we stand an actual chance of getting out of Cinder's thumb."

Neo stared at him for a cold minute, letting the seconds tick by and Roman huffed. "Yeah, I know it's a gamble, and gambling is a sucker's game, but I'm feeling lucky. Besides..." he gripped the steering wheel harder. "I'm tired of playing second fiddle."

Neo saw the spark in her friend's eyes for the first time in a long time and slowly nodded her head, small smile truly genuine. It was a gamble—an enormous risk—one that could cost them everything, and she meant everything, but she'd never known Roman to like taking orders from anyone. And she'd also never known Roman to not have a few aces up his sleeve.

He was right, gambling was a sucker's game, but when someone had the power to change the dice to whatever they so pleased, you played until the place was dried. They were thieves, not gamblers. They didn't play fair, they cheated, and Ron Stoppable might be the loaded dice they need in order to win and clean out Club Cinder. Sure, they might be found out and caught, but that was what thieves and criminals did. Living dangerously came with the territory. It was the occupational hazard of the game. And Neo could always get them out of there if the situation ever escalated too high. Ron looked resilient enough. She could even bet he knew how to run.

Reaching their hideout, Roman parked the ice-cream truck, noting to find a mail truck like Ron said. He was right; an ice-cream truck was nothing but trouble. Almost got him caught, blasted thing. Having a person who saw the flaws in plans could definitely be beneficial to his operations. Yet, that was only the tip of the iceberg. So many possibilities were running through the Master Criminal's head, possibilities he didn't think were ever possible. Almost like the notion of impossibility got beaten up and thrown into a riverbank.

For the first time in a long time, he felt like nothing was impossible!

Life was a game! Why play fair?!

It was time to turn this bag of lemons into a batch of sweet lemonade. "I have a whole new proposition for you, Ron. I'll stick to your terms, you won't be fighting or hurting any innocent people as long as I can help it, but you gotta help me, and my associate here, escape our little predicament."

Ron thought it over, having heard the conversation prior. "Why don't you just run if you hate this Cinder person? Running always works for me."

"I would, but sadly enough, she's faster and trickier than Neo or me." Roman sighed, regaining his vigor a moment later. "But with your skills and that sword on my side, we might be able to win and stick it to her!" Getting out of the vehicle, Roman extended his hand out. "What'd you say, Stoppable? Help me beat my boss, and when the time comes, we'll part ways. I'll even throw in your own personal fake documents of authentication so you could go make an honest living after. Trust me, they'll work."

Ron looked down at Roman and then Neo, seeing an opportunity to finally survive in this unforgiving world. A chance to make it. A chance to find something worth fighting for. He smiled his first natural smile since getting stuck in Remnant.

"I say... what's the four-one-one on that meal you owe me?"

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Edited **\- 6/6/2018**


	2. Cider

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of Kim Possible or RWBY.

* * *

 **Cider**

 **By: Imyoshi**

 _Slam_!

The door to an abandoned warehouse slammed open and three individuals walked in. The inside of the building had peeling paint and lights that either did or did not work. Boxes littered the floor and furniture that was beyond old and dusty surrounded them. At least none of the tinted windows were damaged, but they did block out some of the light from shining in and brightening up the place. Luckily, there wasn't an overpowering odor that reeked. So there was that to look forward to. Nothing else could be said about the broken down warehouse, devoid of any possible features worthy of description.

Roman took pride in it all. "And this is the inside of our hideout. Gawk and be amazed. I'll wait."

Ron casually walked into the hideout after feasting on the promised meal Roman offered—delicious fast-food—chocolate eyes scanning every nook and cranny he could, looking over the interior with a critical eye. When he finished inspecting, he simply shrugged his shoulders in a lack of emotion remotely resembling being impressed. "Eh, I've seen better."

Glaring hard at his new subordinate's refusal to admit the obvious truth, Roman leaned casually on his cane with an air of nastiness. "I'm going to pretend you make sense and are simply too astounded by the layout of such an intricate base of operations."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Getting a snappy comeback ready on the edge of his tongue, he stopped after noticing Neo silently laughing at him from his side, looking positively amused at Ron's disinterest in a Master Criminal's lair. Her silent giggles grated on Roman's nerves and she knew it. Oh, she knew it. She also knew he wouldn't do anything, which really made the situation all the more infuriating.

"Would you stop that?" Neo shook her head. "Tch, fine, whatever! Forget the base! We've got bigger things to worry about. Follow me to the table. It's time that I filled you in our targets and what you'll be doing here."

Walking up to a lone, wooden table lacking in any added features, except for the four wooden chairs who've seen better days, Ron and Neo grab a seat on the odd sounding chairs while Roman rummaged through some damaged dresser, eventually pulling out a file hidden away in a secret compartment only Neo and him knew about. He opened the folder, reaching for a picture to slap down on the table.

 _Slam_!

"Alright, Ron, listen up. To point fingers, this firecracker right here is Cinder Fall." Roman poked the photo he slammed down which featured an extravagant and malicious looking lady with pitch-black hair and amber eyes that melted ice. Her smirk reminded Ron of another sidekick he used to know. "The woman we need your help taking down. Now, don't let the looks fool ya, she's dangerous. Real bad for people like us. Not someone you want hiding under your bed."

Yup! Cinder Fall definitely sounded similar to Shego. Hot and dangerous was a dangerous combination for a supervillain. He nearly smiled at the comparison. For a moment, just a moment, it felt like going over mission specs with Kim and Wade all over again. The emotion was fleeting, but the sidekick gripped it for as long as he could.

Next, Roman pulled out a pair of photos with people he previously saw before, sliding them across to the sidekick as he pulled out more papers. "Hey? It's that broccoli girl from before? She's the one who tried to rob me." Ron frowned, picking up the paper as Roman continued to rummage through the drawer. "Why do all the hot girls turn out to be evil?" Peering at the paper, his previous statement only solidified as Neo unkindly ripped the paper from his hand, smirking tauntingly at the nonchalant sidekick. "Case and point."

Neo poked him on the nose before returning to her seat, throwing the sidekick a causal smirk that reminded Ron more of the other sidekick. Darn it, Shego! He found it odd he sort of missed her classic humor and fiery personality. To top it off, she knew the pains of being a sidekick. Not many people understood that level of underappreciation, but Ron could honestly say she understood his pain deep down. Yeah, okay, he did sort of miss her. However awkward that really was and he knew it was awkward.

Ha! The sidekick held back an empty laugh. The day he'd missed Shego of all people. A nightmare came true. Someone put him out of his misery.

Looking over to his boss, as much he wanted to deny it, he couldn't. Ron saw some of his best friend in him. Didn't hurt he had the same eye color, hair color, and unbreakable personality as her. Helped he dressed snazzy as well. Don't even get him started on the way his hair curved over one of his eyes. Everything attributed to him holding back another insincere laugh.

Slowly, Roman's stack of papers became a total mess. It began to grate on his nerves since the small table proved inadequate at holding everything together. "Ugh! This would be so much easier if we had a board. Neo! Next time remind me to steal a—?!" The Lotus Blade flew out of Ron's back and transformed into a nice looking board that floated for Roman to use. A few seconds passed before the criminal shook his head, not even bothering to hide his villainous smirk. "I can grow to like this."

Grabbing his papers, he stuck all his notes down in a complicated fashion onto the magical board, quite pleased with his work. Every one of the subtle notes he'd taken over the months was all laid out for his new subordinate to see. Each tiny flaw he'd spotted and any other possible weakness were bare and unguarded, ready to be taught. Ready to be used to their fullest, and ready to be exploited for their own personal gain.

A true backstabber's plan!

Grabbing the picture out of Ron's hand, he snipped the picture of Emerald onto the board, next to Mercury's. He did a quick double check before beginning the lesson on everything Ron Stoppable needed to know.

Using his cane as a pointer, his first target was Emerald's picture. "Let's get down to business. Neo, if you would mind coming up here." The ice-cream lover did a mock salute and moved beside Roman. Then, right before Ron's eyes, she transformed into that girl on the picture who tried to rob him. "Let's start with needy-greedy. If you're going to help me bring Cinder down a peg, you're gonna have to know about her two lackeys first. This precious head of broccoli goes by Emerald Sustrai. Watch out! She proclaims to be a Master Thief."

The mocking of her title didn't fly over Ron's head and the blond had to fight back a teasing grin. Neo then did a little twirl for Ron to see every inch of Emerald's body, making sure he had her appearance down to the mark. Though to be fair, she doubted he forgot about the person who tried to rob him, but she twirled anyway to be on the safe side. That was a week ago. A lot could happen since then.

Roman glared. "Get a good look at her, Stoppable. If she sees you, there will be trouble. Remember, we're trying to avoid trouble. So... try to elude her." Slapping his cane down onto a different pair of notes, he frowned. "Beside her need to proclaim her status as a Master Thief, Emerald's dangerous edge does not only come from her high level of close-hand combat skill but her unique Semblance. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I do know it had something to do with illusions. That's what makes her dangerous. So if you see two of her, be careful. Now, onto the next person." He pointed at Mercury Black and his smug grin. "This is Mercury Black. Hate him, love him, I don't care, but just like the last one, avoid him."

Neo transformed into Mercury, acting all cocky with a superior lean and crossing of the hands to finish the image. Ron mentally filed away the guy's appearance. Still, he couldn't stop his mouth from asking. "Does everyone here have such weird hair colors?"

Roman ignored him. "He's all about using his robotic legs to fight. If I was you, I would want to avoid getting kicked." Peering down at his blank notes, his frown deepened. "And then there's his Semblance... I don't know it. So try to focus on staying away from his kicks and you should be fine." Sighing, he put his cane down, glaring at Cinder's photo. "Now onto the big fish, Cinder Fall. The bane of my existence and our target."

Neo did one final transformation, turning into an exact replica of Cinder, throwing her hair back with a smirk that burned just by being in the same room as it. Ron definitely felt an air of power and superiority from just sitting across from her. The glow of her eyes burned his soul. Her smirk could drown a man. And if left unchecked, she could probably rob a person dry until it was too late. Ron knew her type. She was a supervillain. Ahead of the curve essentially, and he was going to be dealing with her with Roman and Neo.

The sitch made him feel both old and young. A tribute to his past life and a calling to return to it.

Taking a seat across from Ron, the Lotus Blade transformed back into a sword and all the papers fell carelessly to the floor. Roman made no point in being angry. He just fixed Ron a powerful glare that lacked all of his playful arrogance, entirely one-hundred percent serious. Neo joined him and transformed back into herself, losing her smirk as well. Their joint seriousness kind of reminded Ron of his serious face. A feature that also any goofiness. How oddly amusing for him that they all have that.

"To put it simply." Roman began, placing power behind his words. "Cinder's strength is terrifying. I will even admit downright frightening. She's got this power over fire and Dust that's second to none. At least, that's as far as I know." Getting up, he turned around to pick up Cinder's photo. "She's no slouch, either. I wasn't kidding about her being fast and powerful. Her two lackeys follow her both out of respect and fear."

Crushing up the photo in his hands, his anger got the better of him and he threw the paper in the air before incinerating the scrap with a blast of his cane. A thick silence fell over in the hideout and he had to calm himself from destroying any more of his stuff. Best not to let even the photo get the upper hand over him. Not in his hideout. Not while he was introducing young Stoppable to the ropes of their little operation.

Gripping his cane, he breathed silently and turned around. "Questions?"

Thinking it over, Ron scratched his head until something sprouted. "Uh, yeah, what's Dust?"

Blinking once at the sidekick, Roman smirked and extended his hands out. "Well look at that, your idiotic question actually brings up another important point I've been meaning to clue you in on. What our line of business specializes in! And that's Dust!" Fishing in his pocket, he pulled out a red crystal and tossed the sucker over to Ron. "What we do is steal this from the stores and sell them for half the market value on the streets. Then we wait until the demand for them goes up and we sell them just below what the stores are charging."

Playing with the shard in his hand, Ron was lost at what was so special about the gem. He rubbed it against his gloved-fingers, unable to feel the texture, then he zeroed in on Roman's goals, comparing them to past supervillains. "That's all you do? Steal Dust? This stuff? Sounds kinda... weak?"

Roman waved his hand nonchalantly. "I deal with all kinds of shady businesses, kid. Dust just happens to be our biggest source of income. And to pop your bubble, I have a client coming in today to buy some forgery documents to enter some fancy school. He should be here around one. Neo? What time is it?" Neo did a series of complicated hand gestures. "What?! It's almost one already? Hn, time sure flies when you got this in your hands."

"Hey!" Ron cried, tossing the Dust shard on the table without a care. "I resent that."

Grabbing a second Fire Dust shard from his pocket, Roman grinned. "Good to know. Now shut up and watch. There's two ways to using Dust. First, you could add Aura and voila!" The shard glowed in his hand and Roman threw it at the piles of papers on the floor, watching the crystal light up and spark a fire in the center of the room. He then reached into his pocket to pull out a Water Dust shard. "Or you could use it as ammunition." He placed the shard into his cane and fired it at the fire, snuffing it out of existence with a torrent of water. "This is what we steal. Got it?"

Amazed at the power those tiny little gems held, Ron shook his head, still awing at the magical fire that happened in front of him. "That's so cool!"

Crossing his arms, Roman felt a little ticked off that his subordinate got excited over Dust's dull properties, but the idea of being inside a Master Criminal's lair didn't even warrant so much as a slight reaction from the crime fighter.

Such a pain.

 _Beep_! _Beep_! _Beep_!

Grabbing his scroll, he checked the message he received and hummed in thought. Eyes skimmed over the scroll before peering over to Ron and Neo. "That client I was waiting for is here. He's a little early, but money's money. C'mon, Stoppable, time for you to take a step into my world and see what the criminal life is all about. Do take notes. You are learning from the best."

Walking up beside him to meet his client, Ron left the Lotus Blade for Neo to mess around with, which she secretly hated as the blade hovered over her head and silently teased the mute girl on her height. Didn't stop her from trying every tactic to grab the sword, even going so far as to using an umbrella sort of weapon to attempt and stab the sidekick's weapon. All good attempts. All failed attempts. All funny to the magical sword.

Remembering Roman's client's item, he ran up to Roman before matching his pace. "So... these forgery papers... you said they were for some school?"

Reaching into a hidden pocket within his coat, Roman pulled out a few papers that looked very authentic and reliable to the untrained eye. A tiny frown marred his features at the mention of the word school, but it quickly died as it appeared, but Ron understood the sentiment. He hated school, too.

"They're for a kid who wants to get into a school for wannabe Huntsmen..." he said in a light, amusing tone. "You know, a place to make friends and train and all that boring junk and yadda-yadda. Turns out he didn't make the cut on his own and had hired me to persuade the officials to let him in."

Confused, Ron looked away, not exactly sure what to say, but he did know one thing if the guy wasn't cut out to survive in a school that required a certain degree of skill to get into. He'd know from personal experience.

"It's his funeral."

"Now you're learning."

"I was once a super villain called Zorpox."

Standing by the door, Roman fixed Ron a stare that spoke volumes. He lightly poked Ron on the chest with his cane. "It's not that I don't believe you, it's just I don't believe you." Opening the door, both the thieves come face-to-face with a tall blond with ocean eyes and equally unkempt hair as Ron, just much longer. Roman didn't think much of him and pressed the papers into the teen's nervous hands. "Here! Like promised. Now scram."

 _Slam_!

Ron shook his head at Roman's blatant attitude. "That was mean. Not even a hello or howdy do? How are going to keep customers coming back with that attitude? Poor business strategy, Roman."

Ignoring him, Roman went to check on Neo and found her trying to catch the Lotus Blade while it flew perfect circles around her. The magical sword even poked her a few times on the cheek with its hilt, clearly fueling itself off its own personal vendetta toward the mute girl. What it was remained lost to the guys. For all he knew, the sword was under Ron's command and he was pushing Neo's buttons on purpose—which the Master Criminal was perfectly fine with—or it was teasing her for her inability to steal it.

Hard to tell.

When she finally did manage to catch it, Ron moved forward and extended his hand, de-materializing the blade in Neo's grasp and then materializing back it into his hand a second later, leaving her with nothing to show for all her pointless efforts. What Ron Stoppable didn't know was that Neo hated being made to look like a fool and the Lotus Blade had spent the last minute making her look like a total fool. That was a minute far too long in her stolen books.

He barely dodged her lunge kick aimed directly for his chest.

"Hey! What was that for?" She didn't answer him—mute and all—and attempted to bash his head with her umbrella. Ron barely dodged her, rolling just out of the way in the nick of time. He quickly stood up and threw his hands out. "Wait! We're supposed to be on the same side! Ah! Timeout! Timeout! Roman! Do something! Sidekick in trouble!"

Watching Ron dodge a kick obviously aimed for his head, Roman looked around the abandoned warehouse and then the Lotus Blade, which hovered both over Ron and Neo as they did their little dance of hurt and be hurt. Not bad. Could use some more choreography and less screaming, and Roman could do with someone actually getting hit, but it was a nice dance to distract him for a few minutes. Neo seemed to be having fun and Ron was breaking a good sweat. In all, a dance he enjoyed watching, then Ron quickly power-slid under Neo's roundhouse kick before making a mad dash toward a more secluded area of the hideout with her hot on his tail. The entire display spun a few cogs in Roman's mind, shuffling around others while he absorbed the displays of obvious athletic conditioning coming from his new hand.

No one just knew how to run and dodge like that.

Feeling an idea coming along as Ron barely blocked another kick meant for his shoulder, Roman just remembered something his new subordinate told him. Along the lines of fighting and spying to be clear. Some of which may have been fabricated, but he promised himself he'd give Ron the benefit of the doubt. So as far as he was concerned, Ron wasn't lying and all those impressive dodges came from a life of crime-fighting.

What a perplexing conundrum Roman was given.

"You know, all this talk about Huntsmen schools, learning, and seeing you run away screaming from Neo has made me remember another point I've been meaning to bring up." Ron narrowly blocked a mid-kick delivered by Neo with the aid of his Lotus Blade turning into a shield, and fear held onto him as Roman pointed his cane at him. "You said you could fight. Let's test that out, shall we? It'll give us a chance to find out what your Semblance might be."

Like he had a choice in the matter.

...

Jaune Arc remained behind for a bit, lost after seeing that blond dude who seemed to be around his age. In an odd stroke of luck, the Arc considered himself fortunate not to be in the same boat as that guy. Jaune didn't even want to consider what happened to that blond's life to dictate to working for such a criminal, because he knew he didn't see that guy last time he talked to the guy in white.

Pushing the scary thought away, he left the cargo bay and back to Vale. With the transcripts in his hand, he planned his next move. Now that he'd been accepted to Beacon Academy, Jaune didn't exactly know what his next move would be. Getting into the academy proved to be the easy part, now came the hard part, surviving four years in a Huntsmen academy with no training whatsoever. A problem with hardly any solution he saw in the far distance. The only possible choice he had was to wing it and train to make up for lost time, but even then he was severely lacking and heavily handicapped.

"I can't go back home..." Jaune frowned, stepping out of the cargo bay. "I'll just have to make the best of it."

Besides, Jaune Arc doubted he'd ever run into those guys again. Best to not look back on it and instead take two steps forward.

...

Roman Torchwick would give Ron Stoppable this, the kid could fucking dodge, he wasn't so much of an attacker per se, avoiding confrontation like nobody's business, but damn he dodged and blocked like a pro. And Roman didn't mean like the duck and roll out of the way type of dodge any poor schmuck with two cents to their name could do. No. The Master Criminal meant Ron used anything and everything to his advantage when it came to running, moving, and dodging. He even had a name for it. Damn fool called it his mad running away skills. Roman simply saw it as a skill he'd picked from a life of fighting. Again, another point the criminal had to take in consideration when he recalled Ron's out-of-place backstory.

It wasn't enough to persuade him completely, but the damn kid was giving Neo a run for her money. Neo! His second-in-command and overall deadly assassin! So the man relented a little and accepted the fact Ron had a hard life he knew nothing about. Probably even harder than his if he was betting on it. Maybe even more than Neo's.

Speaking of his mute assassin, poor Neo hadn't landed a direct hit yet! Neo! She was actually starting to look tired! Her! Of all people! And for a split-second, Roman swore there was a small trickle of sweat building on her forehead. Of course, that was just the lighting from the broken down warehouse? Right? Right! Had to be! Just had to be. Why else would she look tired? There was no other option!

Flanking to the left, Neo missed Ron and the distance between them increased. The sidekick used the free moment to catch his breath, wondering how the heck he got himself into this dangerous sitch this time? Just this morning he had been fishing for food, and now he was running from a girl who he personally thought was honestly trying to murder him. If the haunting glint in her eyes was anything to go by—and Ron had seen plenty of those in his life—then he was in for a world of hurt.

Finally feeling doom fall on him, some of his dormant Mystical Monkey Powers react when Neo actually got close to landing a cut on his chest and he moved in a way similar to a Monkey Faunus, narrowly sidestepping between Neo's thrust and grabbing her arm in the process. Then he was pressing her wrist between his arm and torso while adding much force to keep her from breaking free.

It was clearly a losing battle on his part, she'd break free first, but he was desperate enough to gamble. Even still, he managed to glare weakly at her from the close proximity. "Can you stop trying to stab me already? It wasn't funny five minutes ago. And it's not funny now!"

What type of backward world had the Master Criminal walked into?

Moving forward, Roman figured he should save Ron from Neo's onslaught, not too keen on the idea of him dying after spending so many resources trying to find him. That and he didn't want blood on his nice, murky floor. The color he wouldn't mind all too much, but the smell and stain would linger for days, especially since he knew no one would bother cleaning up the spill. He wasn't gonna do it. Not to mention there was the whole fact of having to rid of the body—and it was all too much of a hassle for the criminal today.

Clapping his hands together, Roman grabbed their attention. "Okay, kiddies. Playtime is over. We got a job to do. There will be more time for fun later." And in fun, he meant training, lots and lots of training. "Hurry up! We don't have all day."

Blinking a few times at their boss, Ron let go of Neo and she rubbed her wrist gently with a sour look for a second before surprise kicking the sidekick on the side of his body, sending him across the warehouse. A triumph, smug smirk quickly stretched across her features when she heard the telltale crash of boxes and other assortments falling onto Ron as a groan escaped the sidekick.

"Neo..." Roman warned, taking a seat at the table. "Stop playing around and get over here!"

Taking a seat at the table, Neo joined Roman soon after while they waited for the sidekick to dig himself out of the pile of boxes and wooden stuff that'd fallen over him. Eventually, the Lotus Blade helped and turned into a pair of gloves that began lifting the stuff off of Ron, finishing the task much faster.

Finally seeing Ron free, Roman clasped his fingers together as he leaned on the table. "Okay, you're free, time to get down to business. We're hitting a local Dust shop tonight and we need to make a stop before doing so."

Taking a seat, Ron fixed Neo a glare that the ice-cream flavored girl ignored, looking as innocent as a child. It was probably the first childlike innocence he'd actually steal candy or ice-cream from. "What kind of stop?"

Unclasping his fingers, Roman leaned back into his chair with a hint of indifference. "We need to pick up some muscle... if you get my drift."

Ron glared at him, wiping off some spare particles of dust from his sleeves. "Don't patronize me. I know what a henchman is. And in my line of experience..." he added. "They're useless on getting a job done. The only way to get a job done right is to do it yourself. And it saves you money."

Roman wanted to argue, he already had about two-hundred and one different snappy retorts on the tip of his tongue, just waiting to go to town on the kid, but he did have a point. Based on past experience, Roman hadn't been very too pleased with the henchmen he'd hired and their past performance. He'd even went as far to say as dissatisfied—strongly dissatisfied. That was enough to actually hear Ron's words, even more so after the whole ice-cream truck gimmick.

"So what? No henchmen?" Roman asked, giving Ron the room and some power.

Of course, the sidekick didn't disappoint. "I never said that. I said they're useless on getting a job done. But nothing about being scapegoats." He grinned. "Henchmen are really good at taking the fall and being a distraction."

Surprised at his sudden turn of emotions, Roman decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and grinned equally as large as the kid, only adding a sense of nastiness to his. On a side note, he was starting to like this kid more and more, and Neo had been searching for someone to play with for a while now who wouldn't break so easily under her destructive onslaught.

"I like the way you think."

...

After a stop at some place called Junior's Club, the duo left with an assortment of identical looking men with a red and black suit and tie type of getup. Didn't make much sense to Ron as they boarded some flying contraction he'd seen littering the skies time and time again. Being stuck under such a match-making system seemed pointless when trying to act all covert and stuff. If anything, unless they were ninjas, it made finding and spotting Junior's henchmen all the simpler. He knew he would've had zero trouble finding these guys, but he wasn't working for Junior, so it mattered very little to the sidekick. Distractions were distractions, no matter what style of outfit it wore, even one as ridiculous as theirs.

Checking his gloves—which were the Lotus Blade—Ron felt a sense of Déjà vu at the sense of partaking in this mission. Sure, it was a heist to rob some poor sucker of his store's supply of Dust, but the sense of adrenaline and alertness that came from taking a mission took him back to a different time of his life. A time before he got trapped here on Remnant where life no longer made any sense and monsters were as real as the powers people had.

It made him happy.

Recalling the old memories, Ron couldn't help but smile in a sad away that broke parts of his heart. He constantly wondered whatever happened after he disappeared. More times than not, the sidekick looked up at the broken moon filled sky after a long day of walking around the kingdom and just simply wondered things. Things that always made him feel terrible inside and only worse, but those terrible thoughts helped him fall asleep and forget about his current troubles. They likewise helped him accept the sitch he was stuck in and move on forward, however hard that proved to be. Other times he forced himself to sleep because the pain was too much to bear.

Feeling the aircraft jerk, Ron was pulled out from his thoughts as they landed near the top of a building with their target right across from them. No one noticed the Bullhead dropping them off and the machine made a clean getaway into the night air.

From Dust Till Dawn, a simple Dust shop—Ron had seen many of them during one of his random walks, but had never before known what Dust was—and it lacked any sort of real security. Most likely due to the shop being located in a fairer place of Vale compared to where he had normally traveled, but that just made the job easier in the long run. A false sense of security was a good thing.

He knew this and so did his boss. Too bad Neo couldn't come, but apparently, Roman's boss, Cinder, needed their third member for some other important job and Roman practically growled out his _yes_ through his scroll when she demanded Neo's services. To patch things up, she offered her assistance in their little job, but Roman refused, eyeing Ron the entire the time. And in a way, Ron felt for the guy, almost knowing what the feelings he was going through felt like, but some other part of Ron was glad the cheater wasn't here.

It was the stepping stone of their love-hate relationship.

Following Roman's orders, they all bounced down from the aircraft and most of them landed decently on the floor with Roman and Ron being the exception. Roman, because he was used to this type of stuff and had personally trained for this. Ron, because he was used to this and had personally trained for this. Wow! Small worlds.

Thinking hard about the fact, Ron's eyes narrowed a fraction at the side-to-side comparison, allowing a tiny thought to sprout from the soil of doubt lingering in his head. In a way, when Ron Stoppable compared the notes and went over some past memories, he couldn't help but allow that idea to grow and nurture ever so slightly under the rain of doubt he plagued himself with. Really, when he truly compared the notes and made-up equations in his head, only one sane conclusion popped out.

There existed zero difference between a Hero and a Villain.

Pushing the thought away, for now, the duo strolled down and entered the shop with the henchmen following right after, making a beeline toward the old man manning the register. It started off cool, collective, and simple enough. Roman had pointed his cane at the old man and demanded all the Dust he had and whatnot. The clueless henchmen reacted and started retrieving the Dust in haste. Not a hair out of place so far, but of course Fate or Destiny or whatever the people of Remnant liked to call it, decided to intervene when one of the henchmen flew back from a surprise attack and through store's display glass.

Everything had almost gone without a hitch, too.

Seeing the man down and out for the count from outside the broken glass and inside the store, Ron groaned when the second henchman sent to take care of this little problem was thrown out the same window with their problem standing above the man in a red cloak that breezed in the wind like some cliché comic book hero. She stood up to fight them, looking determined for someone who took out the trash.

The remaining henchmen went and charged in a stumbling fashion, toward the mysterious fighter with their weapons drawn and screams of bloody murder. An impressive sight for a civilian, maybe, but not for the duo. They were left to watch as they charged in with their weapons crudely thrown up, ready to hack and slash the moment they got within arm's reach of her.

Ron knew that wouldn't end well, especially when some giant scythe-like weapon geared to life and their assailant turned out to be a girl with silvery eyes and hair that was both black and crimson, right down to the ends of her locks. The weapon momentarily caught the sidekick off-guard, spacing him out as he compared it to past gadgets he held, but his focus returned when the henchmen, running at her, stepped on some broken glass, forcing the sidekick to get a better look at her. She wore a black skirt and leggings with a corset of some sorts with bullets attached to her belt that were fashioned with a rose buckle. She appeared to be younger than him, maybe by a year, maybe less, and there was this air of heroism surrounding the way she stood up to glare heroically at her soon to be attackers.

Ron Stoppable instantly recognized that look from the countless times from seeing Kim Possible throwing out the same look.

Twisting her weapon in a powerful fashion, the scythe crashed down hard on the floor, breaking the asphalt beneath her feet as the girl prepared to take care of the henchmen charging at her with a trained stance.

The henchmen didn't stand a chance. Not one little bit. It was almost painful to watch. Not the ouch kind of painful, well, maybe that too, but the sad kind of painful. The one where everyone just wanted to look away because it hurt to keep watching after the first or second minute.

Watching a random henchman fly over their heads, Roman inclined his noggin toward their current headache. "Hey, go distract her while I finish up here."

"Why do I have to _distract_ her?" Irony heavily laced Ron's words. "Do you see what she's doing to our henchmen?! They're not exactly _winning_."

The glare on Roman's face lacked emotion. "Because you're the one with the Lotus Blade and you were able to keep up Neo. As far as I'm concerned, you're more than ready to deal with her. I'll admit, you're the not the best fighter, you're kinda pathetic actually, but you should be able to keep up with Red over there for now and distract her. So hurry it up! I'm almost done here."

Sighing, he left Roman and jumped out the window to spot this girl finishing off the remaining henchmen with little concern. She wasn't tired at all and her eyes were set directly on him the second he stepped out and walked on some glass. They were strong and determined, reminding the sidekick of his old best friend. Without any warning, she was on the attack, using some gun mechanic in her weapon to give her a slight boost of velocity and range, increasing her speed to near frightening heights.

For once, Ron Stoppable was on the other end of this Hero and Villain screenplay.

Looking straight ahead at the scythe closing in on him, he took a small step back, bringing his hand back. It would be so easy to simply evade all her attacks, get out of harm's way, but he wasn't exactly sure what her reaction might be. Either she maintained chasing him or she went after Roman, and that wasn't part of the plan. So he was stuck having to distract her, keeping the fight close, but not too close, his specialty at his finest. On the plus side, she wasn't as fast as Neo, lucky for him, but he'd always been more of a hands-on type of fighter, half being due to his Mystical Monkey Powers and half not liking the idea of using a weapon to hurt people, but Ron wouldn't mind having a weapon this time! Not when a giant scythe was flying toward him that was bigger than the both of them.

Hearing its master's call, the Lotus Blade transformed into its base sword form from Ron's gloves, intercepting the girl's scythe on its own with his master holding the hilt and dull part of the blade.

 _Clash_!

A brief flash of surprise captured the girl's face, either from Ron being able to intercept her strike or his gloves turning into a sword in front of her eyes, hard to tell, but she quickly regained her composure and started to push the sidekick back with the help of the gun mechanism to add more force behind her push. It turned out to be an almost fair power struggle, but he was losing with the weight of her weapon pressing down onto him like a weight of gravity forcing his knees to buckle.

"Lotus Blade, a little help here, buddy!" Ron urged, feeling the blade act out and push his attack back with an invisible force. He held the Lotus Blade close to his chest as she was forced back this time.

His opponent stopped to blink as Ron took a defensive stance. "You talk to your weapon?"

Ron took a moment to pause, registering how young she sounded, before looking down at his sword. He flashed his eyes up and grinned at her, buying time for Roman to hurry up. "Yup! I'm that kind of guy."

Red observed him like some animal at a zoo, before charging at him with a deep frown. She swung her massive weapon, hoping to land a clean hit on his side torso, but Ron ducked underneath the blade and moved a few steps back. A trickle of sweat traveled down his neck from nearly being cut in half, scared out of his mind. When a lock of his blond hair fell in front of his face, he held out his hands in mock surrender, appearing harmless.

"Can't we talk about this?"

She swung her blade again, hoping this time to use his distraction to aim a solid hit anywhere on his body, but his blade intercepted hers in a locked stalemate. Strangely enough, he acted more confused than she did, eyeing his sword like it had a mind of its own. Then, like puzzle pieces falling into place, he gripped his blade a bit firmer and pressed her back. The game changed and he shifted gears, flicking back her precious baby with a strength she didn't think he possessed. It almost appeared as if his body was the extension of his sword—not the other way around—when she went into for a quick spin-slash, halting her strike while appearing indifferent to the move itself.

Apparently, talking was out.

Ron was on the offensive this time, doing mock slashes that had no real instinct to hurt behind them, but still ended up pushing her back if their weapons connect. So far the sidekick learned she was pretty darn fast and agile, maybe more than Neo, and it was only thanks to the Lotus Blade moving his hand to intercept her slashes, that he was able to keep fighting. Part of the thanks went this Aura stuff. He just felt faster and stronger than before. It was all so riveting and overpowering. Almost like the time he first unlocked his Mystical Monkey Powers.

For a moment in this godforsaken world, the sidekick felt alive again for the first time since getting stuck in Remnant. His eyes were bright again and his heart was beating rapidly against his chest. The blood in his body felt hot, and the playful side of his sidekick likeness for taunting people was impossible to ignore.

This all felt like a mission.

The sidekick hated to admit it, but he missed this feeling. He blamed Kim for this feeling. This feeling of being in the center of danger. Fighting, just fighting brought back good memories that made the fight all the more special. All more heart-crushingly beautiful that he was at a loss for words. Burning away the doubt, it was a reawakening of Ron Stoppable, and the planet of Remnant would never be the same again.

Blocking his thrust with the metal of the blade, the hooded girl jumped back and prepared to dash at him. At the meantime, he was testing out his footwork, recalling all the henchmen he'd dodged and avoided from in his past life. Everything felt good. He felt good. He was broadcasting that feeling to her, watching her movements with eyes only a paranoid sidekick attained.

She was trained to fight. That much was obvious. She was leagues better than him. Again, obvious. That weapon was twice her size, but essentially it was two versus one and she happened to be the one, so the advantage was on their side. Numbers were his friend. They've always been, but then she suddenly appeared in front of him in a flutter of rose petals and brought up her scythe from under his arm, catching the hilt of the Lotus Blade between her scythe's steel blade.

Using the hidden gun mechanics inside her scythe to add an extra amount of force, she forcefully pressed the Lotus Blade out of his hands and they watched it slide across the street with a cling and clang. Then she was turning around to beat Ron down with a proud smile, but the sidekick held out his hand when she wasn't looking.

"Lotus Blade!" The magical blade moved out of the girl's line of vision, moving closer to Ron. "I need a shield!"

 _Clash_!

Her eyes widened when her weapon came in contact with a floating shield that bore a Lotus flower symbol in the middle. She sadly had little time to question as Ron came out from behind to sweep kick her off her feet and throw her back. Lucky for her, she was able to balance herself and pull her weapon away from his shield, but the surprise expression never left her face.

"Where did that shield come from?"

To answer her question, he plucked the shield from the air and willed it to transform back into the Lotus Blade. It floated in the air next to him and he willed it to turn into another assortment of other weapons, even her scythe, before settling back into a sword. Somewhere in the background, unbeknownst to her, Roman had cleaned out the entire supply of Dust from the shop and was whispering for Ron to hurry it up, but the sidekick couldn't exactly fight and dash.

There was no principle or honor in that.

He grabbed the sword and pointed it at her in a pose that was strikingly familiar to past villains he'd fought over the years. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Having not answered her question verbally, but with a preview of its unbelievable power, her face lost the curiosity and was replaced with sadness. She actually lowered her weapon, seeming disappointed from the recent turn of events. "How could such an amazing weapon be in the hands of a bad guy?"

Bad guy—those words left a nasty taste in Ron's mouth and burned away most of his rare happiness, resembling somewhere along the flavors of ash. All of his previous joy turned back into the hollow feeling he'd been feeling for the past month and broke part of his fighting spirit. He even bothered to ask himself the same question but found himself slightly annoyed. Annoyed at her blatant statement and judgmental eyes. Eyes he recognized from people back in his old world. People who didn't and would never understand the sacrifices he'd made!

Different planet, same people!

How dare she make assumptions? Not everyone was a bad guy. Some people were just put in an unfavorable sitch with no real right answer. This just so happened to be one of those times. He tried going to the police. They mocked him! Called him crazy! So what choice did he have but to accept Roman's offer? Not his fault he wanted to live. To move forward! To not wither away with no one to even care about his death! So he was tempted, oh so very tempted to give her the answer she was looking for. Because for just a small moment, he wanted her to know what one of life's biggest mysteries. Show her how cruel and unfair life really could be!

Ron gave her an honest answer. An answer he'd learned the hard way time and time again and was currently living to the fullest. "Life's unfair... that's why."

Based on the way her face scrunched up, she didn't like that answer. Ironic considering the context. Ron would like nothing more than to play cat and mouse a little longer with her, but Roman was getting rather impatient, and monologues were a surefire way to get caught.

Time for a distraction!

Reaching into his pocket, his fingers ran along the smooth outlines of the Fire Dust shard in his pocket and he tried a few times to add this so-called Aura into the shard. It took a few moments before he felt a pull of some sorts react in his chest and he pulled out the shard to see it glow with the same faint outline Roman did earlier at their hideout. The real knowledge behind the mechanic escaped him.

Grinning to himself, Ron threw the shard in the air and a gunshot from Roman's cane came from behind. "Later!"

 _Boom_!

They were gone by the time the would-be-hero removed the soot from eyes, having escaped from the alleyways, instead of the rooftop that Roman wanted to go. Ron's idea on how not to be caught. Somewhere along the heated lines, the word cliché came up more than a few times, but the real subtext got lost in the shuffle.

...

Running through a few empty alleyways, Roman and Ron ultimately stopped when they reached the building where their airship was waiting. They slowly climb up to the roof from the fire escape and made it to their airship and took off with all of the shop's Dust in a few bags. None of the henchmen made it out, but Ron and Roman shared little concern, knowing their part in their little operation was already fulfilled. Nothing to do now but skedaddle and live to fight another day.

Lifting off into the air, no one down below saw anything wrong with an airship flying through the skies of Vale. Not Red or the scary looking witch down under. By the time they reached their hideout, Neo was idly waiting with a tub of ice-cream perched on her stomach and boots kicked off. She hung her feet from the side of the dusty couch, apparently having finished whatever assignment Cinder needed her for.

A spoon dangled in her mouth when she greeted the both of them with a lazy wave, not bothering to remove her tiny butt from the old, meager couch. By now Ron didn't expect much from her in the terms of niceness or etiquette, having learned quickly Neo was neither of those things from the few hours he'd unfortunately been trapped in her company, but would it kill her to offer some of her ice-cream?

She stubbornly moved the carton away when she spotted his lingering gaze settle on the tub, close to her stomach, so the answer was mean yes.

Dropping the case of Dust onto the wooden table, Ron grumbled and fell back into the first chair he could sit on, pushing his legs out as Roman pulled up a second chair to sit next to the sidekick. The smirk on his face was pretty damn unnerving if he did say so himself, and his boss was grabbing his shoulder before he could ask what?

"Not bad, kid. Not bad. After what I saw tonight, you definitely have something going for you. Both in here..." he pointed to Ron's head. "And here..." he then pointed to his muscles and weapon, which hung to the sidekick's back by an invisible force. "That's not to say we still have our work cut, but you definitely know what you're doing."

Ron took the compliment in a way he couldn't fathom. It felt nice to hear. On one hand, that talent was being used for villainy, which was sick and wrong on so many levels. On the other hand, it was the first time in a long time that anyone had ever recognized him for, well, anything. No one in his old world acknowledged his accomplishments. Thus the entire ordeal threw his entire world into a perplexing spin. The feeling of being of needed was a new one to him. One he could definitely get used to. And again, no one was expecting anything out of the sidekick. At least not in the hero department. Not anymore.

"Uh? Thanks."

Getting up, Roman patted Ron on the shoulder one more time, knowing now he picked up the diamond from the coal patch that was Vale's lower district. No doubt about it anymore. Sure, the kid had a sense of morality in him, which might come in the way of his plans from time to time, but Roman was willing to look the other way as long as Ron didn't actively try to get in his way. Then, by all means, the kid could keep his values in check for when he eventually left, but until then, the Master Criminal needed him to help overthrow Cinder and leave her thumb once and for all, so he'd try to stick to Ron's terms as well. Compromise was the underscore of their entire operation, after all.

Little Red earlier had just been a thorn in their side, an unfortunate mishap—nothing more, nothing less.

Looking between his two hands, Roman smirked at Neo who held the tub of ice-cream in a teasing way with the shake of the carton at an annoyed Ron. He did get up and try to pluck the carton from her hand, but she was faster than him, barely, and dodged Ron. They were like children and him the father. They sure acted like children, that was for damn sure. Still, the image was clearer than water itself.

One big happy family!

"Neo! Give me some of that ice-cream!" _Crash_! "Neo!"

Yup! One big happy family!

...

Across from town, after finishing a meeting with the prestigious Headmaster of Beacon Academy and the Headmistress, Ruby Rose walked out Vale's police department with a small hitch in her step. Apparently, her fight with the henchmen had been caught by the shop's security cameras which had surprisingly earned her a spot in her dream school. A stroke of dumb luck on her part, great, but still dumb. Almost nothing could sour her happy mood, but something did and it put a damper on everything. She couldn't even maintain her smile the second she stepped out the police station, cruelly haunted by her failure.

Her resolve strengthened.

The cameras hadn't caught the last parts of the fight with the guy with the blond hair. They didn't see his weapon's power or even catch a real appearance of the sword. None of it was caught on camera, having been slightly skewed from one of her bullets hitting the machine after pulling his sword free from his grasp. None of it was recorded. Even when he transformed his gloves into his sword had been centered underneath the cameras. None of it had been caught! All Ruby could bank on was her memories!

Ruby possibly thought about telling the Headmaster this, but without any actual proof and not wanting to ruin her chance to attending Beacon at the idea of sounding mentally insane, she kept her mouth tightly shut on the matter. That still didn't stop the hollowness from spreading across her happiness. Just the thought of that guy having a weapon that could transform into a flurry of different weapons ticked some part of her. Not the thought of him having an amazing weapon, but the thought of it having been used for evil purposes just ruined everything. It kind of ruined her hollow victory and turned it more into an embarrassing loss.

Kicking a lone pebble on the floor, Ruby frowned at the thought of the guy's appearance and his messy blond hair and goofy smile when he actually smiled. As long as she remained breathing, she wouldn't forget his face, but his name was another story. She didn't catch his name, not even sure if it had been announced at all throughout the whole heist, but she did catch the name of the sword.

The Lotus Blade.

Like her weapon, Crescent Rose, he, too, talked to his weapon. Both were named after a flower and had the description of the weapon's primary function in the name. Crescent meant as a curved shaped blade and Blade meant to express a sword. The only real difference, except for the obvious weapon designs, was that his weapon could float and actually appeared to understand his commands without needing to actually do anything, hence the sudden force she felt during their power struggle when he demanded help. That tiny spark of info confused the Little Reaper to no end.

There were many questions she wanted to ask him. How was it made? Who made it? Where did he get it? When was the blade forged? All sorts of questions her usual love for weapons demanded of her, but these were all questions she could only ask the next time she saw him, and who knew when that'd be? Maybe she wouldn't see him again? That was a very possible outcome. Even more so, he was on the opposite side of the law. That was just another pop to her bubble. For all she knew, he wouldn't ever tell her. That was an even more possible outcome.

Stopping her walk, Ruby Rose looked up toward the broken moon and thought heavily on the words he told her.

 _Life's unfair..._

The message behind the meaning of those words was clear from the start, how could it not been, but she swore that he meant those words more toward himself than her. That sad smile of his just spoke volumes to her. Then again, she might just be overthinking this more than it really was. Maybe he really was just some thief with an unbelievable weapon. Maybe her duty as a Huntress-in-Training was to just stop him and put that sword into more deserving hands. More heroic hands. Hands that believed in doing the right thing and helping those in trouble. Hands that would stop at nothing to stop his criminal career. Hands of a hero.

Hands like hers.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Edited - **6/6/2018**


	3. Yam

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of Kim Possible or RWBY.

* * *

 **Yam**

 **By: Imyoshi**

After the hectic Dust heist, both Ron and Roman simply relaxed in the hideout, taking their sweet time from getting out of the chairs. Neo sat on the couch, enjoying her stolen ice-cream, making extra sure for Ron to see, which he did, and she knew because his glare was cutting through her line of vision over and over again like glass on a chalkboard. His hair's _still_ messed up from their power struggle and she grinned into her next spoonful of Neapolitan deliciousness with a taunting smirk.

Roman's still reeling in the possible jobs his new hand could accomplish and Ron's still fighting an internal battle between his heroic morality and his new found sense of appreciation from his boss. A very complicated struggle for the sidekick with one side having both positive and negative aspects and the other sharing the same properties as well, all very real and possible. But he eventually gave up, too tired to be dealing with any headache inducing sitch at the moment. Too much drama for one guy. Besides, he's getting awfully fed up with Neo shaking that carton of ice-cream in his face.

Buttons have been pressed and the sidekick had never been one to back down from a snackage challenge.

Watching Neo tease Ron with the ice-cream in her hands, Roman's stomach growled under the radar of his two little thieves. Robbing some poor sucker and taunting girls in red hoods really stirred up an appetite. Food did sound good right about now and Neo shouldn't spoil her dinner with ice-cream. No matter how much she complained. Takeout or not, ice-cream wasn't a suitable substitute for the essentials—grease and preservatives!

Walking up between the duo, Roman swiped Neo's ice-cream out of her hands when her guard's down, smirking at the mute girl as her face turned a scary shade of red. It's a nice contrast to her very pale skin and it did nothing to the criminal who enjoyed a quick spoonful of her precious sweet before placing the carton hard on the table, alerting his other companion.

Roman clapped his hands together. "Who's up for dinner?" It's more of a statement than question and Roman's already checking his scroll for local places to hit. "I was thinking somewhere along the lines of fried chicken? What do you two feel like? Here's a hint, say chicken."

Neo made a stabbing gesture toward the ice-cream, but Roman ignored her, eyeing the sidekick instead. Ron took a moment to think it over, not exactly in the mood for anything fried unless it was covered in cheese. And chicken's not fried in cheese. If he's going to be robbing people and all that, greasy foods was the last thing he needed right now. And he's feeling feisty tonight after feeling the adrenaline rush beat in his heart for the first time in a month.

"Do you have a kitchen?"

The question surprised Roman who slowly put his scroll down to point his thumb back. "Back there. We don't use it much. I don't cook and Neo can't to save her life. So we normally get takeout. It's more just for show."

Ron got up from the chair, heading toward the lonely room. "But there is food back there, right?" Roman flicked him a slight nod and the sidekick grinned. "Badical. Just give me a few minutes. I'll make dinner."

Shutting off his scroll, Roman blinked once at the retreating blond. "You cook?"

His answer came in the form of an even larger grin.

...

Roman didn't smile much when it came to eating. Normally food's food. There's no getting around that. Sometimes it tasted good and other times he'd just got to suck it up and down the morsels down before his nose could gag the taste back. However, eating some contraction that's drenched in a thin layer of white sauce, topped over pasta made from scratch, and with perfectly toasted bread to crunch on, had made all the other meals Roman and Neo eaten fail hard in comparison. They're not even sure how the sidekick created such a masterpiece from the limited ingredients. A true work of art if someone asked them.

Roman made no attempt to hide his pleasure. "This is so good. Way better than anything we can find around Vale." Neo reluctantly nodded alongside Roman, trying her hardest to ignore Ron's smug glare. "I could get used to eating stuff like this. Where'd you learn to cook like some high class chef?"

Ron twirled some pasta on his fork, grinning into the bite. "What can I say? I'm a man of many talents."

Roman reached for his water, slurping the ice-cold beverage in haste to finish off the rest of his meal. He relaxed back in his chair with his hat and cane put off to the side and his trench coat opened, which revealed a black shirt almost like Ron's underneath. A pleasant smirk adorned his features, and Neo's finishing up her meal as well, glaring at Ron from the rim of his cup. No way was she going to admit she loved the meal to the sidekick. Her pride wouldn't allow it. Yet, something told her Ron already knew.

Taking a few minutes to unwind after a stressful job, Roman eventually sat right up and stared evenly at his new subordinate. First his new companion had skills, smarts, humor, and now this? "A man of many talents indeed, although..." Roman chuckled, recalling the fight with Red. "Fighting doesn't seem to be one of them. We'll start working on that tomorrow. Until then, you're both free to do what you want. If you leave the hideout, that's fine. Just don't get caught. We're not busting you out if Vale's finest manage to capture you. You're on your own. But you can sleep on the couch until we set you up with a bed."

Roman stood up and pulled a cigar out his coat pocket, needing a smoke to help the food settle down. Neo's right behind him, waving the sidekick off to do the dishes. Ron didn't expect anything less from the ice-cream lover and sighed in his chair, taking a bite of his last portion of pasta. It's nice to have a place to stay at for the night and having food was another pleasant bonus. He's just not use to having someone to talk to.

Grabbing the dishes, Ron finished cleaning them slowly, wondering how training tomorrow would be. Was it going to be like training with his old ninja friends, where it was a lot of marital arts, or how training was like with his old best friend? That type of training was more espionage based. Both sounded odd. Not weird in the sense that they were both bad, but just probably obsolete compared to this world's strange presence. Ever since Roman unlocked his Aura, Ron's body just felt much lighter than before. He could feel his muscles relax and move perfectly in sync with his body.

Then there's his Mystical Monkey Powers.

He couldn't exactly feel those powers, but some instinct in the sidekick told him that they're there, affected by Aura's presence in his body. He just didn't know how yet. It's not like he hadn't felt their presence before. That fight with that would-be-hero was the perfect example. All those moves of his, dodging and parrying had all been the Mystical Monkey Powers coming to his aid. That much the sidekick knew. Years of being a crime fighter did play a significant role as well, but his powers were the real source of his victory.

Dropping the matter for now, Ron settled to turn in for the night, not wanting to explore Vale and all its wonder. He'd seen pretty much of all it after living on the streets for over a month. One night's not going change anything. And when he set his tired head down on the armrest of the couch, his mind couldn't help but wander.

Part of him wondered if this was all a dream still. And that line of thinking kept him from falling asleep. He did try to fall asleep—he really did—it's just not working. Not now. Probably not for a while at least. And the sidekick's blood's still pumping too fast to lay motionlessly for a set amount of time.

Eventually, he did get up and walk out the hideout where the broken moon's hovering over him. Broken glass break beneath his feet and the cool air tickled his nose. It sort of reminded him of the good old days with Kim. Missions always varied depending on the villain's lair and it wasn't uncommon for them to camp out in extreme weathers. So not to say the cold bothered him, he's just used to it. More so than others. And those thoughts of his were all over the place. Scattered. Lost to the cool wind and chilly night sky.

Sometimes, when he was really depressed, the sidekick wondered if his friends and families were looking up and wondering what happened to him—not with a broken moon of course. Unless, on the other hand, the super villains of the world decided to make a grand show of their dangerous, yet misguided power. For all he knew, the moon's broken there as well. Maybe Drakken finally took over? Maybe Shego finally found a more competent employer? Maybe Monkey Fist finally became that Supreme Monkey King he always yammered on about. Maybe that golf guy got a better super villain's name. Maybe, just maybe, Kim's doing fine without him and her memory of him will vanish without a trace. A haunting thought, but like she used to tell him, anything's possible for a Possible.

Even forgetting about her best friend.

Feeling its master's distress, the Lotus Blade came into existence right beside Ron, just hovering silently next to the blond. Nothing's said. No words were given. Only silence followed as he grabbed the blade to stare at the reflection glaring back at him from the mirror-steel of the blade. And part of the sidekick hated what he saw. While the other part couldn't make heads or tails at what he's looking at. It's him and then it's not. Not entirely. Not one-hundred percent Ron Stoppable.

Those chocolate eyes were his. Those mismatched freckles were his. That blond hair's his. Everything he saw was his—Ron's Stoppable's. So why's it so hard to look at it? Why's it so hard to believe he's really Ron Stoppable, sidekick extraordinaire? Maybe because for the first time since getting trapped in Remnant, Ron's finally realizing he may be Ron Stoppable, but he's not _that_ Ron Stoppable. Not anymore.

He's not going around the world and stopping bad guys from taking over. He's not dealing with pointless high school drama or played-out gossip. Nor was he caught between the shuffle with balancing responsibilities and headaches. None of that centered around his life anymore. So in a way, he's not _that_ Ron Stoppable. Not anymore. Now he's the Ron Stoppable who used his knowledge and talents to aid bad guys instead of stopping them. It's not exactly the life he pictured for himself in this lonely world, at the lonely age of seventeen, but neither was the life back at home.

Did that bit of info hurt to take in? Yes. Did part of him die alongside with his soul? Yes. Did he really have a choice? Yes and no. Ron could walk away from his new boss, but that would only lead him back to a life of living on the streets, and he had no desire on living on the streets again. Then there's another part of him that simply didn't care. Didn't care about the what-ifs and consequences. At this point in his life, what's the damn point in thinking of the negatives? They never truly bothered him before. That had always been more of Kim's issue, not his.

He'd always been a go with the flow type of guy. Avoiding trouble and then starting it by mere coincidence. Always have been and always will be. Couldn't change that. So turning to the dark side wasn't such a major deal. Not while correlating his _never be normal_ life. It's not _impossible_. Just different. Majorly different.

Lowering the Lotus Blade, Ron laughed bitterly into the cold night sky. "I can't believe I'm playing the bad guy now. What would KP say?"

And suddenly he felt drained and sleep didn't sound so impossible anymore.

...

Taking a deep inhale of his smoke, Roman exhaled a few seconds later, enjoying the taste of a good cigar after a dishonest day's work. His mind was flashing back to the job, recounting the fight that Stoppable had Little Red. Nothing too special. The criminal's seen his fair share of wannabe heroes. Brats! Each and every one of them till the bitter end. He'd dealt with their kind plenty of times. And they all ended up the same.

Buried six feet under.

 _Jab_! _Jab_! _Jab_!

Throwing his faithful companion a whimsical glance, he smirked easily at the ever so impatient Neo. She had her arms folded, waiting for Roman to spill. And he knew what she wanted. "Monty, you're impatient. Let me finish my smoke first, squirt." He intercepted her attempt to poke his ribs. "Patience."

Enjoying a few more puffs, Roman flicked his cigar across the pavement and patted poor Neo on the head. She attempted to swipe his hand away, but he's quicker, avoiding her hand with simple ease. This only led to him messing her, what did Ron call it again? Badicalest hair he'd ever seen? Whatever that meant. But Roman liked the word _badical_. It had the word _bad_ in it. And he liked being bad.

Chuckling, he grinned harmlessly at her puffed out cheeks. "Hn? So you wanted to know how the job went? I came back with the Dust, didn't I? What else do you want to know?" A few hand gestures later. "Oh? You want to know how Stoppable did? Why so interested? Hn? Like the guy?" An attempted _jab_ to his jaw later. "Sheesh! Calm down. I'm starting to think you actually do like him." Another attempt. "Alright, alright! He's a little wet behind the ears, but the kid's got something most of the villain community lacks... common sense. Not to mention he's quick on his feet. You should've saw how he taunted some wannabe hero? I didn't hear what he said, but whatever it was, it really got under her skin. You could see it in her eyes. He's a natural."

Neo made another series of hand gestures, eye brows raised. "Do I believe his story about being from a different dimension? No..." Roman paused. "I don't really know. That sword of his kind of gives him some wiggle room. Never seen a weapon like his. And we both know it's not his Semblance, I unlocked his Aura personally. And it's too skinny to hide any sort of contractions. And I know better than anyone what crazy things exist in this world."

Neo hummed silently, thinking for a moment before adding another few gestures. Roman had a little trouble interpreting her. "Mystical... Monkey... Powers? Ninja magic? Oh!" He remembered. "The kid did say something about having that. You think it's real?" Neo shrugged. "Yea, I'm not too sure either. I won't outright say he's lying. No Aura, but tech-less weapon. The math doesn't really add up, huh?" Now Roman shrugged. "Maybe it really is ninja magic and... monkey powers? I guess we'll just have to see."

She blinked, arms crossed again. Then Neo's doing a few kicks and mock punches at Roman's body with a silent roar. "Sure, do what you want, but be careful with him. We _need_ him. So don't hit him too hard." He smirked a moment later, elbowing poor Neo in the stomach. "That is... _if_ you _can_ hit him."

Neo attempted to beat Roman to a pulp with a flaying of her arms, but the Master Criminal held her back with the barrel of his cane.

...

Ron Stoppable's cruelly woken up when he's suddenly yanked off the couch by a tiny force of swirls and colors. He opened his eyes with a tiny groan to see Neo standing over him with her umbrella perched over her shoulder. She made no attempt to hide her smug, superior smirk, which again, reminded Ron of another sidekick he once knew, but he pushed that aside, favoring to figure out the multi-colored girl above him. Looked like she's still angry about the whole ice-cream truck issue? Not his fault their disguise vehicle lacked anything even remotely close to covert.

What a way to start his morning.

Sitting up, Ron ruffled his hair a bit to glare at Neo with one eye through his palm. "What is it, Neo? Can't you see I was trying to sleep?" He'd already brushed aside the idea of asking _why_ she did what she did. It's simpler to just ask what she wanted. "Well?"

Neo said nothing—obviously—and Roman walked in a minute later without his hat or coat on. There's a scroll in his hand, and his footsteps were filled with purpose and poise from years of training. He paused in front of Ron and Neo, tossing the scroll over to Ron to catch while giving Neo an amused glare.

The sidekick almost dropped the scroll, barely catching the device before looking down at the article Roman wanted him to look over. Apparently, some rare Dust was in some Weapons Master shop located here in Vale and Ron didn't need to be a genius to put the pieces together.

"So what? We're hitting some shop later? Now? When? Keep a guy in the loop."

Roman reached for the scroll, pointing at the disjointed pair. "Not we, _you two_ , tonight, while I distract Cinder so she didn't realize Neo's missing. This one is all us boys and girls."

Ron stopped to think about the new job, and judging by the light coming from the windows, it's still early out. "If we're pulling off this job tonight, then why did you wake me up so early? It's like... before none."

Roman dropped down on the couch, bringing both his arms to rest on the neck of the couch. He kicked his feet out and pointed at Ron and Neo, then he pointed at a vacant area of the hideout. It's just large enough for Roman's taste and his current plans. Neo's already aboard, flashing over there in an instant and Ron's still on the floor with his sheet wrapped around his body and hair a mess. Instincts told him to run.

"Time for training, Stoppable."

Ron looked over to Roman, disbelief clear across his face. "Now?" A simple nod's his answer and Ron sighed loudly, already getting up. "Fine. I didn't want to sleep in anyways or have breakfast."

"That's the spirit!"

Having slept in his mission outfit, Ron moved forward where Neo was standing, ignoring the high spiciness of Roman's villain sarcasm. So far he knew he could dodge the petite girl, but he knew full well Roman's looking for some offense now. And he couldn't blame his boss. Judging his little fight with Red yesterday, some mad kung-fu skills wouldn't be so bad to have in a world full of freaky, super powered people. Besides, Ron didn't want to get anymore rusty than he already was. Would be a great dishonor to Yamanouchi.

Yawning one last time, Ron stood on the opposite side of Neo and lifted his gloved hand up. The article of clothing transformed silently into the Lotus Blade and he gripped the sword tightly, already feeling his instincts kicking in when Neo didn't even give him any sort of warning and lunged right for his defenseless pose. Just like a criminal.

Of course Ron dodged her, narrowly missing her roundhouse kicked aimed for his head by bending back, half thanks to honed skill and the other to his monkey instincts and reflexes. Aura didn't really play much on movement, just strength and speed from what Roman explained to him. Experience's not something fancy powers could give him. That's something he'd picked up over the years. And he showed this well as he dodged another one of Neo's lunges, only this time he tried to counter with a sloppy slash of his own on her exposed back, to be only be blocked easily with Neo dropping behind her umbrella to intercept his attack. She didn't even take a moment to look over her shoulder while she blocked his weak move, smirking on the side of her face.

Then she tried to swing her foot back when his sword's still connected, but Ron saw that coming a mile away and ducked underneath her attempt to hit him, feeling the wind pass by his hair. Then he created some distance between them, jumping back as Neo fixed him a smirk promising pain. The mute girl's clearly sadistic, no doubt about it, but couldn't she show a little bit of compassion for the poor sidekick. They're on the same team.

His answer came in the form of her appearing to the side of him with only the Lotus Blade saving him from taking a stab to the side. His movements alone hadn't been fast enough to intercept her. He saw her flash beside him, but he just wasn't fast _enough_ to react, _yet_. In due time, he's sure, but he's faced with another dilemma as the Lotus Blade gave his swing a little bit more force to push Neo away.

The problem was Ron had never been much of a weapons type of dude. He's only stuck with the Lotus Blade after a freak ninja accident. He'd always preferred more of a hands-on type of approach. Weapons just haven't ever been part of his style—his essential Ronness. All that stuff made the sidekick who he was. Like the _never be normal_ motto he lived by. Weapons, no matter how badical they were, never appealed to the sidekick. Ironic considering his weapon was indeed one-of-a-kind and in a class all on its own, even on a planet of badical machines.

 _Clash_!

Stopping Neo's umbrella from hitting him on the face, Ron made an attempt to swing at her, but the mute girl simply sidestepped his attempt with elegant poise, laughing silently at his poor swordplay. Couldn't really blame her. He had no practice with using a sword. Again, all hands. The Lotus Blade's the one half the time parrying her slashes. He's just dodging her attacks and giving the sword openings.

Capturing another one of Neo's strikes, Ron's eyes widened in pain as a kick to his torso was suddenly felt from the side, flinging the sidekick away with his grip momentarily leaving his sword. He stood up a second later to spot Neo still standing where she had surprised kicked him in their power struggle with the Lotus Blade still holding Neo's sword in the air without Ron. It floated back to the sidekick as soon as he got up, but he didn't make a reach for the blade. Instead, he stared at the sword interestingly enough, having a silent one-sided conversation that passed between him and the mystical sword.

After seeing the sword still fending off Neo's umbrella and seeing Neo using their power struggle as a sort of distraction to use her body against him, Ron's suddenly got a clever plan on how to get the best of both worlds.

Perhaps there's a way for him to use the sword and his hand-to-hand combat at the same time?

For the first time ever, Ron started walking toward Neo before mad dashing at her, yell strong, and Roman raised a single brow in amusement as the Lotus Blade flew alongside Ron, instead of resting in his grip. Neo simply raised her umbrella in a mocking gesture, prepared for whatever Ron could have in store for her. He didn't even get close to her before she teleported behind him, aiming a thrust meant to strike his back with the tip of her umbrella.

 _Crash_!

Ron smirked, turning around to deliver a direct fist toward Neo's exposed face. He may not be able to keep up yet, but the Lotus Blade could. And with her weapon locked in a power struggle with his in midair, Neo barely realized what's happening before she's hit squarely on the nose and flung back.

Some people would have problems attacking a girl. Ron Stoppable's not one of those people. He had absolutely no problem hitting a girl. Growing up surrounded by powerful females all his life kind of made the whole females were weak and fragile stereotype die pretty damn quickly. A lesson he learned a few times the hard way. Plus, it felt really great to strike Neo after all the torment she'd put him through.

Although, the victory's short-lived as Neo got up in anger with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. She blinked once and the colors in her eyes invert. Somehow that seemed worse for Ron and even Roman used a moment to wonder what's going through Neo's mind. Then all bets were off as Neo charged at with a soundless roar, bringing out the hidden blade hidden in her umbrella to attack the sidekick. Roman's about to stop her, but he halted himself when he spotted a certain look in Ron's eyes at the height of his life in danger.

Every cell in Ron's body came back to life, recalling all the times his life had been danger when saving the world. Not like last night. His actual life was in danger and his honed instincts took over. Having his life put in danger wasn't something new, it just hadn't happened in a long time. He'd actually forgotten the rush he used to feel when henchmen used to chase after him with electric weapons, or Monkey Fist's ninja monkeys.

So much nostalgia. So much fear. So much _fear_.

Maybe it's his Aura, Mystical Monkey Powers, him, or even all the above, but Ron actually charged at Neo to meet her head on because fear told him running wasn't an option. Suicidal? Absolutely! Insane? Positively! Refreshing? Ferociously! Frightening? Yes. Every cell in his body's scared.

Willing the Lotus Blade to follow after him, the sword glided alongside Ron, ready to divert and distract all of Neo's blows while he took care of the mute girl. The first two prove to be successful, but they're still leagues apart in skill and Neo started to counter some of his tactics by faking attacks of her own. He's able to dodge them for the most part, but that teleportation of hers really pushed him to the brink. By the time he's able to create some distance between each other, there's a cut running down his cheek from Neo scratching him, having long given up the idea of her umbrella actually connecting with Ron as long as the Lotus Blade remained close by. Although, the bruises forming on his body do indicate pain had been delivered—a lot of it.

Needing to find some way to subdue her, Ron racked his brain for an answer, finally coming to an idea that might work. Mainly a distraction, plain and simple.

Running at her, the Lotus Blade got ready to draw away her attack, making her umbrella useless as usual, but this time Ron grabbed her weapon as soon as the Lotus Blade stopped it, reaching for his sword the moment he gripped her umbrella. Then Ron willed the Lotus Blade to turn into a rope and commanded it to wrap around Neo's body, attempting to capture her and win the fight.

He almost smiled in victory as the rope tightened around her still body, until she shattered into many tiny fragments of glass when enough pressure was applied. Then he felt the tip of her sword pressed firmly to his back, signaling the end of the match.

Looking over his shoulder, Ron spotted Neo smirking victoriously at him. The anger's gone from her features. Well, most of it anyways. She still had this sense of smugness though. Still, he felt cheated. Cheated! Damn her freaky powers. Totally unfair.

"That... power is unfair." Her smirk only widened before she whacked him on the head, flashing over toward Roman on the couch. Made him wonder when he'd get his Semblance. "That's cheating!"

Sighing to himself, Ron grabbed the floating rope and willed the Lotus Blade to turn back into a pair of mission gloves. Meanwhile, Roman clapped his hands, standing up to judge the situation. He walked over to Ron and lightly poked the sidekick on the forehead.

"Not bad, Ron. That was definitely thinking outside the box. You need those types of brains to make it in the big world."

Neither Ron or Roman have to point out how sloppy and undefined Ron's new form of fighting was. It was fresh and required much practiced to perfect. The hand-to-hand and execution still left a lot to be desire, but the general gist was enough alone to bank on. And that's what practice was for. Lots and lots of practice. Eventually, Ron would be able to fully utilize the Lotus Blade's power and his in a fight.

Not now. But eventually. And Roman's perfectly fine on waiting. This batch of lemonade's going to sell like hotcakes.

Other than that, other points need to be made. "Being a Master Criminal takes more than just brawn and you seem to know that. Good. C'mon, makes us some breakfast and we'll talk more about the job for tonight."

Ron sighed, looking at the kitchen and the eventual mess he's about to create. Under normal circumstances he's all for making breakfast, but after just getting tossed around like a rag doll, well, Ron Stoppable wasn't so as enthusiastic to be cooking breakfast for the she-devil herself. Part came from being a naturally lazy person and the other out of spite. But then Roman's looking at him with hope in his eyes, clearly not wanting to subject himself to the fatty foods Vale had to offer on a dirty plate.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not on your life."

...

Breakfast was served and Ron's worried Roman's going to choke on his food from how fast his boss was eating it. Neo's at least more reserved than Roman, at least when she thought he's not looking. But the sad part was, he's always looking. A chef enjoyed watching his creation being devoured, but this was a little much. It's like they've never had omelets, hash browns, and bacon for breakfast before. Do those items even exist in this plane of existence. What a world they must live in.

Finishing up his meal, Roman traced his fingers over the rim of his glass, savoring the flavors. Some of the foods he had tasted were new to him, Neo included. Those tiny strips of pig and potato really hit the spot. Heck! With the way Ron cooked, he might've just used the teenager as a personal cook, thievery skills unneeded. But that'd be a devastating waste to the kid's talents. And Roman hated being wasteful.

And while he's on the subject of not wasting Ron's talents. "So, I've been thinking. You're hitting a Weapons Master shop. While you're there, you should pick up a weapon design or two so you could use that sword of yours to better use. It's kind of a waste if you're only transforming that thing into basic weapons and not the good stuff."

Ron looked up from his plate, eyes lost to what Roman's really getting at. "Come again?"

The Master Criminal pointed at the gloves Ron wore. "I'm just saying. You could probably—no. I _know_ could you put that weapon of yours to better use. Like that rope earlier. You just lack the imagination. And that's fine." Roman threw up his hand in a mock surrender. "That's why I'm saying you should snoop around and pick up a few ideas."

Ron found it impossible to find any holes in his boss's logic. Soundly, the idea was perfect. It made perfect sense. And even _he_ liked the idea of having the Lotus Blade transform into one of those weapons people carried around. Then again, he could just work more on his imagination. Problem being, he sorely lacked any imagination when it came to weapons. So essentially he's just running in circles now.

Taking a bite of his breakfast, Ron shrugged in approval, drowning the rest of his meal down in a cup of freshly made orange juice. Not like the idea of breaking into a place was new for him, he's just worried over Neo being his only companion. With Roman, Ron sort of knew what he's getting into. It's not same with Neo. So far all he knew about her was her love for ice-cream and stabbing. And those don't correlate very well to being sneaky. She already had poor tastes in disguise vehicles.

But there's a chance he could be wrong.

"Sure, sure." Ron waved. "You can count on me."

"Good." Roman smirked before reaching into his coat pocket to pull out a blueprint of the Weapons Master shop. It's a large building with many intricate traps hidden in every corner. Then he glared over to Neo. "There's going to be many traps and alarm systems set up. How do you think we should handle it?"

Looking over the blueprint, Ron saw the layout and all its glory. Some part of him wanted to ask where Roman found these blueprints of the projects he's hitting, but another part didn't really care. Villain's have always found a way to wrap their fingers around such delicate information. This was no different.

Observing the nooks and cranny of the place, Ron lost hardly any time finding the one fatal flaw all security systems had. No matter how complex or powerful a system was, they always had the same flaw iconically. Just like all the super villains he'd faced in his lifetime. And Roman did want him to find better uses for the sword.

Ron raised his hand, looking totally innocent and naïve. "I have an idea."

...

Neo and Ron reach the _front_ door of the weapons workshop and Dust storage, standing in the dead of the night with only half the moon to greet them. Their dark silhouettes were hard to make out in the moonlight, but not completely impossible as they stood in front of the reinforced door, appearing totally inconspicuous, enough for Neo to be able to see a sense of awareness flash in the sidekick's eyes from sneaking in the dark before it's gone.

Glaring at the high-tech door, Neo made a few hand gestures on how to get in and Ron's not having any of it. "No! We don't always need to stab somebody! There's a much easier way."

Kneeling beside the door, Ron ran his hands slowly over the metalwork, feeling like he was on a mission again. The gears and sneakiness of it all forced him to remember better times—times when life made sense. Memories of breaking down even the most complicated of security systems were still as fresh as ever. And this was no different.

Standing up, Ron smiled heroically at Neo. "Now, usually, this is the part where I use some high tech gizmo to crack open the lock, but since we don't have any of those, we have this!" He grabbed the Lotus Blade from his back and held it and all its magnificent glory. "Now watch and be amazed."

Pointing the sword at the complicated, one-of-a-kind lock mechanism keyhole, Ron lightly pressed the sword in as it quietly transformed to fit into the right spots. Slowly, ever so slowly, the Lotus Blade essentially turned into a perfect skeleton key and Ron turned the device, hearing the telltale sounds of a lock opening up and most likely the security system shutting off. A grin blossomed on his face as the door opened and gave way with a simple push of his palm.

"See?" he laughed, pulling the key out and willing it to turn back into the Lotus Blade before willing the sword to gravitate to his back. "Simple. No one ever thinks to set up traps at the front door." Neo still made a hand gesture that roughly translated that _stabbing somebody could've accomplished the same results_. Sighing, Ron walked in with an air of lightness in his step. "C'mon, let's just get this mission over with."

Walking in, Ron found the light switch and flicked it on, taking a moment to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness. When his eyes do focus, he's assaulted by a momentum of blueprints and weapons he'd never before seen, but the sidekick pushed them away to find the incredibly rare Dust Roman had hammered on about. Beside, as amazing as these weapons were, they didn't hold a candle's light to the Lotus Blade's incredible power. He could just imagine these weapons and imagine them even better if he actually tried, which was exactly what Roman wanted out of him and one of the purposes of him coming here.

Ignoring the metal lingering on the shelves, Ron spotted a see-through cabinet that's storing Dust. He took a quick moment to see where Neo ran off to, and he found her checking out some weapon catalog she must've found. In her hands were a few weapons locked firmly in her hold, most likely for her to have fun with back at the hideout after they finished.

Fine with him, whatever rocked her disturbing boat.

Reaching the case, Ron willed the Lotus Blade to turn into another key. He lightly opened the cabinet, feeling an incredible and indescribable sense of Déjà vu suddenly take him. Then he's no longer back in some high-tech weapons shop in Remnant, but back home on Earth with Kim, and they're retrieving—not stealing—something a villain stole from a random scientist.

The memory seemed so real with the way Kim grabbed the device, placed in it her mission bag, and then led the way back out the villain's lair without so much as a sound. Throughout the entire ordeal, Ron couldn't make a sound, and even when he tried, no words could be made. No sound's possible in this memory. Nothing's possible except for the chance to relive it.

Then he's pulled back when a hand grabbed his shoulder, dissolving the memory away in a sea of blackness as he's brought back to standing over some glass cabinet with a shiny, dark crystal staring him in the face. A small nudge on his shoulder forced the sidekick to glance over and spot a tiny ounce of worry betraying Neo's usually calm and smug face. For her to have notice him being unresponsive, the sidekick wondered how long he was out for.

Guilt taking over, Ron grinned and reached inside for the rare Dust, willingly the Lotus Blade to turn into a mission bag as he dropped the crystal in.

"I'm fine, Neo. Just got caught up in the moment." She didn't fully believe him and Ron couldn't fault her, although, her sudden and new found worry for him was very surprising and even more so heartwarming. No matter how much she'd probably deny expressing any sort of emotions later. "I got the Dust shard, let get the heck out of here."

Glaring, she let him go and grabbed a few more blueprints that was most likely meant for him to practice the Lotus Blade with, stuffed them in his bag, and they left without ever leaving a trace of breaking in and entering with a calm _click_ of the door closing behind them. They escape without running, appearing as any normal civilian at the dead of night. And in the morning after, Vale's finest will once again be forever stumped at how the thieves managed to sneak in and rob the place blind without leaving even a hair of evidence behind, all except for a red hooded girl who saw right through the ruse with her silvery eyes.

...

When Ruby Rose walked into her favorite Weapons Master shop the following morning to grab some Dust rounds, she's greeted with policemen inspecting the place and the case where the rare Dust crystal had been residing. Her train eyes even make out all the missing blueprints of many weapons that used to litter the walls and even noticed several weapons missing themselves. Everything's so mismatched and out of place that her mind latched onto the first piece of regularity it could hear.

"What do you mean that the thief must've just let himself in through the front door?! It's a one-of-a-kind lock! I made it myself!" Spotting the old man yelling out to the fellow policemen, Ruby ran up to see what had happened. She didn't say anything of course, just remaining out of arms reach.

The officer tried to calm him down, but it's to no avail. "I'm sorry. But there's no sign of break-in. The only way the thief could've gotten in here was either they were already inside when you closed up or just happened to go through the front door."

That's not good enough for the old man. "That's not _possible_. My sensors would've detected anyone inside before I locked up. And I'm the only one with the key. It's not like some criminal just had the power to duplicate the key!"

Time freezing for a moment, Ruby took a small step back, reeling back in the words the old man had just said. Her eyes were wide and her breathing's a little short. Calmly though, she's able to settle down her breathing and walk about the shop before anyone noticed her frantic behavior. It did nothing, however, to stop the forming of a fist. And she's angry by the time she made it outside. She even made a second fist to tag along with the first.

 _It's not like some criminal just had the power to duplicate the key!_

Except that's pretty much what might've happened if she's thinking this right. "This just has to be him! I just know it! No one else could've done something like this."

To steal from a Weapons Master shop was no small crime. Actually, it's pretty darn impossible. Their security systems were state-of-art, practically impossible to infiltrate from both the inside and out. Only a highly trained person could rob from a Weapons Master shop and get away without tripping the alarm. No way could an amateur pull off such a feat. At least not without leaving a clue behind or making some mistake. Yet, no mistakes had apparently been made and no sigh of force entry was found, doubly confusing everyone involved with the case.

Maybe if the thief had only stolen the weapon blueprints, Ruby would've looked the other way. But they also stole the rare Dust _and_ the weapon blueprints. Two very distinct things that jerk _had in common_ —weapons and Dust. And with that weapon of his, Ruby could actually believe he just turned his sword into the perfect key and walked right in without even setting off an alarm. It's not too hard to imagine. Quite the opposite in fact. It's too easy for the hooded girl to picture.

In the end, it didn't matter anymore; Ruby just kicked another lone pebble away and walked to some Dust store to pick up her rounds of Dust. Until that thief made some kind of mistake, she wouldn't be able to find him. No matter how much she wanted to. And she knew she wouldn't. Besides, she needed to get ready for Beacon next week.

"Darn it."

...

Roman Torchwick's pleased with himself when he got back from Cinder's meeting the same morning. He may have hated listening to Cinder's plan to recruit the White Fang into their operations, but he's damn happy to see the very rare Dust shard resting easily on his table with a mountain of weapon blueprints scattered all over the hideout. In the far corner of the room he could see Neo and Ron using the Lotus Blade to turn into some of the weapons, having apparent fun without trying to strangle each other for once. It's enough for Roman _not_ want to tease them and breakup the party. He even remained hidden from the two.

Ignoring the massive hammer that'd suddenly come into existence in Neo's hands, the Master Criminal reached out and grabbed the rare, _black_ Dust crystal resting on the table, taking immense pleasure as he rubbed his fingers along the clean cut lines of the fragment of Dust with a satisfied smirk. The edges dug into his glove and Roman killed an urge to laugh.

Normally, he would've never allowed Neo to do such a job alone with a window so short to rob the place. Too much hassle, too much risk, and not enough insurance for one piece of Dust. But with Ron's unusual expertise and weapon on their side, Roman hadn't even considered the negatives at the time. Already knowing from the start the job would be either completed or they would've at least gotten out their relatively fine if things turned south. But it hadn't. And the rare Dust shard was resting coolly between his fingers while Ron and Neo continued to break the realm of normalcy.

Pocketing the Dust away in a safe hidden from even Cinder and her lackey's eyes, Roman _clicked_ his cane hard down on the floor as he made his way over to Ron and Neo. They still haven't settled their attention over at him. Probably in favor of the floating rocket launcher hovering in front of them, or simply not caring for his entrance. Maybe even both if the Master Criminal's honest for once. Not likely, but a nice thought.

"So I see the job went off without a hitch?"

Neo still ignored him, latching instead onto the giant, red ray gun that came into existence in front of them. The blueprints never figured out how to properly create the weapon with all its complexity. None of that mattered to the magical sword and Ron's imagination. And Neo's already off to let Ron fill Roman in on the details while she went to play with the weapon's functions and terrorize anyone and anything nearby.

Laughing to himself, Ron smiled at Roman. "Yup! Got in and got out in no time. Peace of cake."

A lingering essence of the sidekick still felt bad for robbing the place and he doubted that feeling will ever go away, but then Roman's slapping Ron the back with a pleasant grin that reminded him of his old best friend, and everything's almost alright. Sure, he's a guy, a _villain_. But he's a guy with _orange_ hair and _green_ eyes who believed in him. It'd been a real _long_ time since he was ever complimented for _anything_. And the rush of doing something dangerous did bring a bit of life back into the sidekick's bleak existence. Something he didn't even think he had control over anymore.

Danger had never really gotten along with Ron, or so he thought. Now, though, Ron's not too sure anymore. Maybe after all this time, he's realizing danger was the only real way for him to feel alive anymore. Feel like himself. Feel like Ron Stoppable again and not some drifter in a world full of monsters and super powered freaks.

It's all so confusing that Ron pushed it aside in favor to listen. "That's what I like to hear. Good job! Now then!" Roman glanced down at the blueprints near his feet. "I see you and Neo are having..." An explosion echoed off in the distance. "... Fun?"

Ron shrugged, following Roman to wherever Neo was delivering her own personal slice of one-sided debauchery. "It's mostly her. She _loves_ weapons. I prefer my hands. I don't like things that can stab or hurt me."

"This is coming from the guy with a sword that can turn into any weapon."

"Hey!" Ron countered, flicking away an imaginary piece of dust from his chest. "It's not my fault I'm one-hundred and ten percent awesome. Never be normal, that's what I always say."

The criminal pondered over Ron's words, liking the sound of that motto he lived by. Normal people were just boring and plain. Not enough excitement for him. That was why stayed away from normal people. And Ron's as far as normal as anyone could get. Neo, too, with her sick sense of humor. They're all freaks in their own little special way.

 _Boom_!

Reaching the sound of the commotion, Roman and Ron see Neo blasting poor, defenseless boxes at the corner of the warehouse with a giant weapon that defied gravity in her hands, most likely due to the Lotus Blade compensating for the weight of the large weapon of mass destruction. Literally, the red, deadly looking weapon was bigger than her, yet, the ice-cream lover was holding it with ease, smiling viciously as she incinerated box after box with precise aim.

Roman couldn't help but comment. "That looks like a giant incinerator ray."

Of course Ron's instantly on the defense. "Don't be so crazy... clearly it's a death ray!" he argued passionately with experience. "And trust me, I know my death rays."

Roman didn't even know whether or not he should ask _how_ or _why_ Ron knew that. So he didn't. No point in it. Not with Neo constantly destroying every square and rectangular item in their hideout in a never-ending spree of mayhem and destruction. In his personal opinion, she's just making room for more pointless junk. Out with the old and in with the new. Too bad the new was more useless junk.

Leaving Neo to her fun, Roman gauged for Ron to follow him back to their base of operations. "That aside, we have another job tonight. Nothing like last night, just another Dust robbery. Cinder needs us to clean this town out. Make them cower and fear us."

"Hn?" Ron listened, already mentally preparing himself for a mission later. "Okay. Anything else?"

Roman stopped when he stepped on a blueprint for a stronger barrel weapon that would fire a round twice as powerful with more added speed. Normally, such weapon designs required money, tools, and resources to properly create. Two out of three he lacked to usually upgrade his weapon. And even then the inner workings of the weapon still need to be finalized before being properly operated within the field of the workshop. Not this time however.

This time Roman had everything he needed to build a stronger weapon. The money, the tools, the resources, and the workshop were all bundled together in his hideout. And after seeing Neo having fun with an overly powerful weapon that could honestly change games, well, the Master Criminal's feeling feisty as well. Knowledge and power were within his grasp. And honestly, that's all someone needed to make it big in the world. Never mind useless muscle.

Holding up his cane, Roman poked Ron on the chest with the barrel of his weapon and then pointed it at the weapon Neo's holding. A silent calm filled the void before Roman gave Ron his cane, flicking a smirk toward the sidekick that's filled with evil and appreciation.

Another batch of lemons have landed in Roman's lap. Time to make something out of it.

"Yes. I think it's time for me to upgrade."

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Update **\- 1/8/2017**


	4. Spice

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of Kim Possible or RWBY.

* * *

 **Spice**

 **By: Imyoshi**

Ron glared down at Roman's cane and then back at the Master Criminal for a good minute, not sure what exactly to say or even act out. He's not at all lost. No. Ron completely understood Roman's odd request, it's the execution that left a lot to be desired. The execution and the simplicity behind it made it a difficult request to fulfill, and the sidekick's not sure if Roman's purposely making his life difficult or didn't know the implications behind his demand.

"What do you want me to do about that?"

Roman lost his smirk. "Do I really have to spell it out for you?"

Ron threw his hands up, using them to emphasize his point. "Do I look like some scientist to you? Am I wearing a lab coat with beakers in my hand? Do I know the chemical formula for pi?"

"Pi's used for math, genius."

"See!" Ron argued, reinforcing his points. He quickly breathed in before going on. "You're barking up the wrong tree! I'm not your guy. Not even close! You have a better chance if you ask Neo for help! All that over there!" He's pointing to the weapon in her hands that's causing untold destruction. "That giant death ray in her hands, that's all magic. Crazy, unknown, _monkey magic_. There's no sense behind any of it!"

Roman groaned, throwing one hand forward, patience thinning. "Hey! Don't turn all dumb on me. You know the difference between an incinerator ray and death ray. As far as I'm concerned, you've passed the bar exam. And you're the one with the magic sword."

Ron laughed sarcastically. "Doesn't mean I know how half this junk works! Look at Neo! Do you think I know how that death ray works? I'm still trying to figure out how _she_ works! How many times do I gotta tell you, that's all monkey magic! Why are we going around in circles!"

Banking off the word _magic_ , Roman calmed down, poking Ron on the shoulder. "Then imagine me a better cane and then tear it apart and build it back together. Simple!"

Ron would give him that. That idea of his was pretty simple. But there were still many holes to poke at. "And _where_ am I supposed get the parts or tools for this monstrosity?! We're not exactly drowning in spare parts." To only prove his point, a support beam bent, but held out. "Well?"

"Then go steal them! I really don't care. You're Mr. Know it All! You'll figure it out." Ron didn't move from his spot and Roman glared. Fishing a paper out his coat, he quickly scribbled an address down for Ron to follow. "Here! Take this! Go here! They're packed with parts." An explosion caught their interest and they see Neo blowing stuff up. Roman actually sighed awkwardly. "You're going to spoil Neo, you know that?"

Ron's suddenly having an identity crisis. "I-I'm going to spoil her— _me_! Not you. Nope! It's all me!"

Roman lit up a cigar and began walking outside. He plucked a quick puff of his cigar, enjoying the taste before exhaling. "I'm glad you see the problem. Admitting it is always the hardest step."

Silent for a moment, Ron had his hands bunched as fists, crushing the paper and cane Roman gave him. The job he's asking for wasn't plaguing his mind, but something else entirely, an issue all villains had trouble with, at least back in his old world. But it's hard to fight the results staring him dead in the face.

"... You know, you're putting a lot of faith in a guy you've known only a couple of days. That's another problem bad guys have."

Roman paused in his retreat, hiding one of his hands away into his coat pockets. He threw a casual smirk over his shoulder, enjoying another swig of his cigar. The green in his eyes remind Ron so much of Kim, that and his orange hair and confident strut. It's all so familiar that it hurt emotionally.

"So what are you saying? Planning on leaving?"

Ron sighed with the cane gripped solidly between his fingers, he walked past Roman to this random address. Of course his boss knew the answer. "... No. Just felt like pointing it out."

The Master Criminal considered Ron's words, knowing the sidekick spoke with some truth. The two of them have only known each other for a little under three days. Commonly speaking, he's one-hundred percent right. Bad guys in general didn't open their arms to their new employees so easily. However, even Roman knew Ron's a special case. The kid's not bad, a problem in its own right, but he's damn adaptable. All of which worked perfectly in his favor.

Yet, Roman figured he owed Ron a little breathing room. Having him on the team so far had only supplement to his operations, and Neo didn't seem to mind his presence. She's practically leaching off his happiness, a plus for the both of them. She didn't exactly have people she could actively torment and Ron needed to keep his wits about. So it's a win-win play if Roman had ever saw one.

"Hey!" he yelled out a second later, halting Ron in his walk. "We're business partners. You scratch my back and I scratch yours. Don't forget that."

There's no way Roman could miss the slight smile bridging on Ron's mouth. Although, he did try to hide it to the best of his abilities, the sad fact was Ron's simply terrible with keeping his emotions in check. The kid's an open book for Roman to read and take notes on. Wasn't exactly a bad thing, far from it, just meant Roman knew he could trust the guy. Backstabbing probably didn't even exist in Ron's colorful and unique vocabulary.

Dishonestly, how could the Master Criminal not open up his arms to him? It would be criminal not to. A real smudge on his permanent record!

Holding his hand up, Ron willed the Lotus Blade to come back with the easiest of thoughts. Poor Neo's left stupefied for a few seconds when the ray gun in her hands, suddenly broke apart in a flash of light, and transcended over to Ron's open palm just as fast. Instantly, she's on his tail, jumping onto the back of a protesting sidekick. All of the effort's a wasted one, and soon enough he's carrying her out of the hideout. Roman actually laughed without malice or criminal intent.

Looked like Neo's tagging along to go shopping. Roman hoped she remembered the five-finger discount. Be a shame if she didn't.

...

Grumbling to himself, Ron roamed his eyes on the address Roman gave. For a while he just _looked_ at it, getting eternally lost in the mismatched kingdom with Neo, and then he finally glanced up to Neo resting her chin on his head. He's not concerned about getting back to the hideout, confident in his own abilities to navigate back, plus Neo's here to lighten the load as inconvenient as the sitch really was. But the fact on the matter was Ron couldn't find this store anywhere.

"I don't suppose you know how to get to Crazy Dagger?" Neo wiggled her head in a _no_ gesture, applying extra, _extra_ pressure to Ron's neck. He didn't seem to care or notice. "Perfect. We're never going to find it." Ron's broken out of his sulking by the Lotus Blade turning into a glove. "Huh? What is it?" It pointed at the shop they're looking for. Crazy Dagger's right across the street. "Ah! We found it! Thanks, Lotus Blade! I knew we could count on you!"

Crushing the paper up, Ron walked across the street and entered the shop. They're bombarded by an array of metals and cheap weapons. Wires and parts for various size weapons existed throughout the store and Ron didn't know where to even begin. A worker at the register paid them little mind, reading some Weapons Magazine, oblivious to the world around them. They weren't even offered a greeting as they began exploring aisles with Neo jumping off Ron's back to do whatever it was a Neo did, leaving Ron, the Lotus Blade, and Roman's cane to find anything remotely viable to upgrade Roman's weapon.

Twirling the cane aimlessly in on his finger, Ron traveled deeper into the store, hitting a small section dedicated to copper wires and barrel cylinders. He's completely lost on what to get, not even sure how to get started, so Ron started grabbing the most expensive metal available. Soon he did this for everything he's looking for, grabbing top of the grade material and anything the Lotus Blade pointed at. Eventually, the clerk began to notice Ron's building pile, fixing the young man a glare.

"Hey! Are you going to pay for all this?"

Paying the poor sap no mind, Ron almost scoffed at the question. Like he had any cash or lien as they called it. The cashier should be lucky it's both him and Neo here, and not just the homicidal girl, and speaking of said girl. A quick, subtle glare behind the man spotted Neo hiding just inside his shadow, holding back a chuckle as that haunting smirk of hers answered all the questions. So it's enough for Ron to grab some random part and fix the man a friendly grin.

"Ah! Don't worry! I'm rich!" Ron reminisced, acting out a persona he once used to trick Team Impossible. "And dash it all if I don't know how much any of this stuff is!"

Changing his tune, the merchant almost ran out his register box and over to Ron, rubbing his hands together like some kid in a discounted candy store. Meanwhile, Neo's hanging back, casually prying open unguarded cash registers with relative ease. Every action's practiced and performed perfectly with no trip of any alarm, and Ron's busy playing numbers with the sale's clerk, adding more overpriced junk to his pile. Her final target's the safe in the back, locked and too high-tech for her skills for the limited time she had. Then her attention's shifted to the Lotus Blade lying low on the floor, nudging her foot softly with an unspoken silence.

A devious smirk danced across her face.

Back to distracting the clerk, Ron hoped the Lotus Blade reached Neo without any trouble; having easily sent the blade to her while the man was busy adding piles of technology to the ever growing pile. Not to say he's worried for her—because he's not—but more money was always better. Why else did people always try to steal the stuff? And the magical sword should prove perfect enough to break into any safe if Neo happened to find herself challenged with.

Ron's so engrossed with his disguise that neither him nor the clerk notice another pair of feet walk in. Said feet were connected to Ruby Rose, who's fuming from being unable to shop at her favorite Weapons Master shop after the recent break-in. Now she's stuck buying her quality Dust supplies elsewhere. And Crazy Dagger didn't have bad supplies per se, just overly priced. The place itself was perfectly fine for a young weapon's enthusiast such as herself.

Almost talking to herself, Ruby rummaged through the Dust rounds by the door, hoping to not leave with an empty wallet. An impossible dream as her silvery eyes scanned over the price tags, but what's a Huntress-in-Training to do? She needed Dust and the cheapest Dust shop and Weapon Shop have both been wiped clean of their best stuff. And it's that entire dumb jerk's fault from last night! Okay, so she couldn't prove he robbed the Weapons Shop, but one out of two wasn't bad.

Picking a few of the Dust rounds off the shelves, Ruby kicked her feet and squirmed under the intense price. There's no way she's going to have any more lien after this. Now how was she supposed to survive the week? Beacon's not for another week and her limited supply of food was sad already. Again! It's that dumb jerk's fault. Ruining everything with his totally awesome weapon and his need to steal! How that weapon ended up in his hands was beyond her.

Walking over to the register, Ruby sighed sadly and threw a cautious stare when she found the counter unmanned. Her cautiousness lead her eyes over to the clerk talking to some customer holding more stuff than he could carry. The pile itself was filled with various weapon parts and metals that didn't fit together, at least not entirely so. They're also high-grade and towering over his upper body, speaking of wealth and a body capable and strong. The only thing she could make out of the buyer was his familiar looking cargo pants and terrible voice. But everything's revealed when he turned over to shake the man's hand, grinning a foolish looking smile that Ruby's remembered all too well.

Overcome with a torrent of emotions, Ruby zoomed over to the thief, using her speed Semblance to push her. Her target barely caught her eyes, narrowly avoiding the ball of black and red, allowing her slip by with his foot out and trip. The crashed that happened after distracted everyone long enough for Ron to move over to the counter while the owner was left steaming from Red's sudden crash. He's left to take care of the mess as Ron held back a smile, instantly remembering the ball of anger and adorableness from a few nights prior.

How convenient she found him by accident. Ron had his fair share of running into people he didn't expect to run into. What a small world they live.

He's not dumb. He knew exactly why she charged at him. He recognized her the moment she lunged at him. Nothing out of context for the sidekick, but if there's anything Ron's been good with, it's getting out of a sticky sitch. That included making Little Red the bad guy in their upcoming play. And he doubt she remembered her lines.

The clerk pulled Ruby out the mess she's made, ripping the bucket off her head. "Hey! What do you think you're doing, kid? You almost hit my customer!" Ruby's too dizzy to answer, seeing spots. And the clerk frowned and grabbed her by the hood, physically dragging her out. "Forget it! You're out of here! Damn kids and all their running around!"

Catching her senses, Ruby shook her head and remembered why she did what she did, glaring heroically at the thief waving her off. She tried to make another lunge for it, but was pulled back by the man's angry strength, getting choked slightly in the process. Before she could even talk sense to the man, she's thrown out onto the curb, followed by a soft _click_ of the door to tell her he'd locked her out.

Ruby banged on the glass door a few seconds later, voice slightly muffled through the glass. "You don't understand! He's a criminal! A thief!"

This stopped the clerk dead in his tracks, interest suddenly captured. His head whipped over to an innocent Ron. "A thief!"

Stuck in the crosshairs, Ron felt a wad of cash suddenly being dropped into his pocket, without even needing to ask _what_ or _who,_ he knew it was Neo's doing. Grinning, he pulled out the large stack of money and held it out for the man to see, effectively erasing any doubt of Red's bogus claim. She's almost literally foaming at the mouth, twitching with a tick in her step as Ron playful smirked at her, shaking the Lotus Blade, that's returned to his hand, in casual, utter disappointment.

"As you can see..." Ron chuckled perfectly, adding a terrible accent to his speech. "That little girl over there is clearly delusional. I have more than enough to pay for all this equipment or my name isn't Rich Richardton the Third! Dashing all, I've never been more embarrassed in my entire life."

The clerk rubbed his hands together; pulling down some nearby blinds to block Ruby's squished appearance. "I do apologize, sir! I'll throw in a few rounds of Dust on the house for your troubles."

Holding back a laugh, Ron dropped most of the wad onto the counter, throwing in a little extra of the shop's own money into the mix. "No problem my dear boy, and here's a generous tip for all your troubles! Try not to spend it all in one place!" Pausing, Ron looked at the load in his hands and thought about the off chance that Neo would actually help him carry the supplies back. Knowing she wouldn't, Ron held up a finger. "Actually, if could spare a few bags, my good sir, that would be most useful. And dash it all if I'm not wealthy."

Exiting the shop with his bags of _purchased_ goods, Ron's met with the same girl he ran into and fought last night with. She's glaring coldly at his presence, arms crossed in a challenging way. To be perfectly blunt, Ron's not entirely sure how to react to her sudden appearance. Back in his own world the roles were always reversed. Never before had he been on the guilty side. Suffice to say, Ron's a little lost on how to approach this delicate sitch—lost, but not directionless.

Taking a slow step left, she moved in sync, although much faster. Taking a slow step right, she did the same, just as fast. Her arms were slowly getting drawn to her hip where her scythe weapon remained, her fingers dance along in the air, waiting for Ron to make another move. Except Ron did no such thing, taking the silence with a guiltless expression, but she's not fooled, frowning on a face that had little to no practice with the expression. It's almost cute and adorable in its own special way. Ron would even insult her on it, already having at least three taunts ready on the tip of his tongue.

The Lotus Blade eventually caught onto Ron's curious, amusing emotions, silently hovering over his shoulder to get a better look at the cause for such conflicting feelings. It appeared to be peering down at the hooded girl, leveling with the way she suddenly glared at it, emotions clear as day on her face.

Sighing, Ron smiled. "Hey—!"

"You!" she roared, appearing before him in a flutter of rose petals. By the time they dissipate, her hand had found his wrist, her scythe was pressed up to his chest, and his bags have fallen to the floor. "I've got you! You're not getting away this time! I'm taking you straight to the police!"

Having fared his own share of threats over his work as a sidekick to a hero, Ron took the threat with little vigor, knowing Neo's hidden somewhere around the area if anything was to go wrong. The fear in him was still very real, but the sidekick had always had fear. Plus, without a death ray staring him down, a scythe just didn't pack the same punch as others would think. It's not her, it's him. Wait! No. He's lying. It's her, one-hundred and ten percent her.

Taking him straight to the police? C'mon! That's child's play!

Glaring, Ron used one finger to push the scythe down, finding his strength a lot more vast compared to the few nights before. He's not sure if it's Aura or his Mystical Monkey Power's fault, or even possibly both, but he's not exactly complaining, glad for the extra power. And it did help him sell his new villainous persona, however haunting it was to the sidekick hero mentality. Anything to honestly get ahead in his new life, which included being on the wrong side of the law, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Finding her adding extra force to her push, Ron grabbed the non-blade part of the weapon, using his full hand to push it away now. In a show of force, she did try to push his efforts back, but she's using her better hand holding his wrist while he's left to use his stronger one to best her weaker one's grip.

"I'll give you points for trying." Ron teased, suddenly grabbing her hand with the one trapped. "But you have a lot to learn. You can't just go around screaming whatever you want. People are gonna think you're crazy. You honestly didn't help yourself back there with the crashing."

"That was your fault!"

Ron laughed. "Details, details!" Pushing her weapon away, Ron took a step forward, pushing the struggling girl back. A few more feet later, he stopped, tilting his head to the side. "By the way, lose the cape! It's only going to hold you back!"

She tried to push him back, but the Lotus Blade held Ron in place. This time her weapon's aimed in a way he couldn't be pushed back. It's almost an even struggle, but Ron's coming out on top this time. She threw everything she had into it, fueling her muscles with much needed Aura, but Ron's powers react with the same force, keeping them in a stalemate of their own design. Well, almost. Ron's still physically stronger than her by a technical and natural standpoint.

Losing the battle, she didn't let go of his hand. "It's not cape! It's a cloak!"

 _Tug_!

Feeling a sudden force tug on cloak, she's pulled back, letting go of Ron's hand in the struggle. The power behind the pull threw her back, tumbling her across the pavement with her weapon sliding alongside her defeated form. By the time she sat up, his shadow's looming over her with a second person tagging along, tri-colored and all. Her smirk's even more villainous than his, sinister in more ways than one.

The sidekick towered over her, laughing alongside a smirking Neo while he aimed the Lotus Blade at her prone form. "Cloak... hoodie... same difference. It's all so amateurish."

Ron laughed at Ruby's puffed out cheeks, reading her body language like a comic book. He grabbed his stolen goods from off the floor, pretending her need for justice didn't remind him of another certain person he once followed. And before she could even scream her lungs out, Ron slipped a few liens into her choker, having no need for such trivial objects, not while he's working for a Master Criminal.

"Here... for _your_ troubles!"

Ruby threw her hand out, narrowly missing them both as they disappear in a shatter of glass. She never noticed them running off in the distance, vanishing from her line of sight before she could figure out what's truly going on. And as she stood up, she grabbed the lien stuffed in her collar, shaking slightly in place with constrained anger. Again he got away! Again he's made her look like a fool! And again that weapon of his was out of her reach!

Crumpling the lien in her hand, Ruby kicked some imaginary dust. "Darn it!"

...

Reaching their hideout, Ron dropped the bag of supplies onto the wooden table, taking the closest seat to rest on. His legs were spread out and his head's thrown back. A few of the supplies roll off the table, lifeless without someone to move them, but Ron failed to be that person. On the negative side, Neo's invading his personal bubble, reaching for the Lotus Blade tucked between his fingers with adorable fascination that Ron knew Neo will gut him later if he ever told Roman.

Not to say he's sorely tempted, because he was, very much so.

Feeding her hunger, Ron grabbed the Lotus Blade and willed it to turn into the death ray Neo was playing with earlier, shoving the machine right into her greedy hands. Off she ran to incinerate Naco knew what, leaving Ron without a weapon or manual to start on Roman's new cane. And while he's head aching over the subject, Ron glanced around the empty lair, silently wondering where his boss was. Couldn't be too far? Ron doubted Roman would go anywhere without his cane.

Ignoring the way Neo's destroying everything in her path; Ron sighed and got up, curious to Roman's current whereabouts. If he's going to make him a new weapon, then he's gotta know what Roman liked and disliked. Knowing the ins and outs of his new boss could only benefit the sidekick. And a part of him didn't want to be left alone with Neo, not while she's spring cleaning the hell out of their lair. Plus, it gave him time to think. Like how he's going to even start on a new weapon for Roman. Not to say he didn't have experience working on weapons of destruction—ergo Drakken—Ron's just not confident in the whole building a doomsday weapon thing, hence why he relied more on Mystical Monkey Magic, not science.

Searching for Roman for the better part of five minutes, Ron gave up, figuring the guy must've taken some secret tunnel or escape hatch to wander off. The lair's only so big to hide. A more logical point was that he's just not around, having other affairs to take care. An even better point was Roman had more than one cane. All very good assumptions, but he lacked the backbone or reason to care enough to ponder over the sitch. And unless Neo's going to help—an unlikely scenario all on its own right—Ron didn't feel like searching anymore. That Red girl kind of threw a wrench into his whole good mood, anyways.

Acting all hero-like! It made him sick to his stomach and soul. What gave her the nerve to remind him of his checkered past? Ron's still trying to move past it, and seeing someone act like a hero wasn't exactly helping with his ten-step program. He's already engrossed in guilt, did she have to treat him like a villain? What's her deal?

Groaning out loud, Ron walked stepped out the warehouse. "This is so sick and wrong. I majorly need some fresh air."

Outside the warehouse there wasn't much to look at it. Now that it wasn't so dark outside and he had time to explore, Ron took in the sites. They're located in some rundown cargo bay, vastly different compared to the one Roman found him in. The floor's still littered with broken glass, but that must be due to some of the windows being damaged. In all, the place had seen better days, but sure as hell beat sleeping on the streets, that's for damn sure.

Venturing further out, Ron found the edge of the water splashing against the concrete. He quietly sat down, dangling his feet with his arms spread back. The salty air mixed with his skin and hair, leaving a tingling behind. Ron's used to it. He's used to a lot of things he's slowly figuring out. Weird how a person never noticed them until they're stranded on some uncharted island or a weird world where monsters roam the forest, the idea alone tickled his nose.

Spotting a few fish splash by, Ron leaned forward and wrapped his arms around one of his knees, burying part of his face into his cargo pants. His sad eyes continue to roam the vast, empty sea, lost in both thought and sight. His soul and heart hurt in more ways than one. It's all just so sickeningly ironic. When did he become the bad guy?

 _You don't understand! He's a criminal! A thief!_

Narrowing his eyes, Ron picked up a piece of concrete and chucked it out into the ocean. What did that wannabe hero know? Nothing! She didn't understand what it's like to have an unfair life! The world wasn't so black and white. Ron Stoppable had seen his fair share of _silver_ throughout his lifetime. Not to say Little Red was wrong, but she's not entirely right, because in the end of the day, she, too, didn't understand his plight. Not even Roman and Neo fully understood his pain, but they at least redirect it, they distract him from the bigger picture. It's definitely better than nothing.

"I miss you, KP." Ron's surprised he said that out loud. He's doubly surprised to find out Kim's nickname didn't hurt as much to say, anymore. "I wonder if you would be disappointed in me. In the bad choices I've made."

If Ron Stoppable expected some answer from the calm, blue ocean, he didn't get one.

...

Returning with some grub, Roman casually strolled into the warehouse, throwing his hat off the moment he stepped inside. He fished his coat pocket for a cigar, heading toward an area where he expected to find Neo and Ron, and what he found was Neo snoozing on their couch, feet up and head hanging over the edge. Judging by the amount of destroyed equipment, she's tired herself out. Not even Cinder knew that Neo's secretly a lazy person, and given enough alone time, she'd fall right into a light snooze in the middle of the day.

It's one of Neo's more eccentric and lackluster qualities.

Roman whistled into the room and took a quick pause before lighting his cigar. There, in the corner of the lair, was Ron's magical sword leaning over a Weapons Magazine. It's flipping through the pages with a magical gloved hand, appearing completely enthralled with all the gizmos and gadgets before it. And if he stared hard enough, the criminal could swear each gesture showed genuine emotion coming from the mystical blade.

"Now that's just not right."

Lighting his cigar, Roman peered over to the pile of expensive machinery and metal on the table, surprised and not-surprised at the haul Stoppable and Neo managed to pull in. This must be all going to his new cane, since no other reasons come to mind. Ron certainly didn't need a new weapon and Neo was happy with hers. Now that just left the question to where Ron's at? He's easily not here, but he couldn't be too far away. Roman doubted the magical sword would venture off too far from its supposed master.

Grabbing his cane from off the back of the chair, Roman put the food down and walked over to the Lotus Blade, finding its interest in the ins and outs of weaponry a plus and an oddity all at the same time. There's a very high chance that he'd never see anything stranger than this sight for the rest of his life, but he's not betting on that. Who knew what else Ron could bring to the table? This might become a running gag for all he knew.

"Hey... where's Stoppable?" His answer's met with a sign pointing with a pointed direction. "Uh... thanks." Roman didn't think he'd get use to the sword having a mind of its own. "You keep doing... whatever it is you're doing."

Following the direction the sword pointed, Roman left the warehouse, already coming to a conclusion where he might find the kid. The litter around him didn't bother him and the glass broke beneath his feet. His legs take him to the edge of cargo bay, where Ron's watching the water pass lazily by with one of those melodramatic, poetic looks. A little cliché for his tastes, but the payoff usually ended up his favor.

Standing behind Ron, Roman leaned on his cane, enjoying the taste of cigar. "What are you doing?"

"Thinking..." Ron answered absently.

Blowing out a puff of smoke, the criminal huffed. "I can see that, genius. But alright, what's going on in that head of yours?"

Sighing, Ron got up, fixing Roman a harmless smile. Of course the man could see right through it, but that's the idea. "Just thinking about my old home. I'm wondering how my family's doing. This world is just so different."

Raising a brow, Roman poked Ron on the shoulder with his cane. "Still riding on that story about being from a different world?" Ron remained silent. "I'm sure your family's fine, stop worrying so much. Hell! I didn't even know you had one."

Ron laughed easily, hiding his pain with a half-lidded smile. "It comes with the story."

Figuring the kid needed a break; Roman threw his hand over Ron's shoulder, finding it a pain to have the kid all mopey. "C'mon, I got us some grub."

Taking the distraction, Ron allowed Roman to remove him from the scenery. "I hope you got tacos!"

"They're burgers."

A minute later Roman and Ron reenter the warehouse with the Lotus Blade still flipping through the magazines. Every few seconds it transformed into the weapon or gizmo seen on the page, learning the functions behind the object with magical interest. It's weird that both the guys didn't find the scene all that weird. In the meantime, Neo's waking up, eyes instantly locked onto the bags of food Roman brought, and before any of them could get a word in, she teleported to the table in a flash, hunger beyond ravenous.

Joining her, Roman brushed the junk, that Neo and Ron bought, off the table. They settle down to enjoy the burgers with Roman listening to Ron talking about what happened at Crazy Dagger. Ron's very eccentric with the tale, eventually calling the Lotus Blade over so he could use its magical, amazing powers to create a few sock puppets. Why he didn't just create a screen that projected exactly what happened was beyond him, but Neo's enjoying the reenactment.

Talking slightly with his mouth full, Ron showed how Red crashed into a pile of appliances. "And this was the part where I tripped her. The owner was so mad he kicked her out. And then we used his own money to pay for the stuff."

Finding the story amusing, Roman chuckled a little, finding it ironic Ron ran into the same girl from two nights ago. "You know, you have some dumb luck right there."

Ron used the Neo sock puppet to drive his point. "It's called dumb skill, get it right. Dumb skill!"

"It's just dumb!" Roman countered, looking over to Neo to find her playing with Ron's sock puppet. "I'm guessing she tried to stop you?"

Ron laughed. "You don't know the half of it! She was going to drag me to the police!"

They all shared a good, villainous laugh over that. The atmosphere around them uplifted and Ron no longer felt sad inside. Roman sort of enjoyed a companion that talked back and understood when to make a joke or how to read a situation. Neo liked someone closer to her age, and his weapon only added to the ever growing pot of Ron Stoppable's qualities. Just like one big, happy, _evil_ family.

...

Across town, Ruby Rose glowered as she walked around Vale, cheeks slightly puffed. Her face was red with anger and slight embarrassment. And worst of all, she had no Dust to show for it. That jerk had been a thorn in her side since she ran into him. Now how was she supposed to buy Dust? Everywhere was even more overpriced than Crazy Dagger thanks to the robbery! A sad, miserable thought if the Rose ever heard of one. There's no way she could afford her Dust rounds and food for the week. Not with the limited allowance her dad gave her. And Ruby's too prideful to ask her dad for more.

Walking aimlessly around Vale, Ruby prayed she could find another shop that sold Dust rounds. Her search lead her to look through display windows, totally not paying any real attention to where she's walking. Not until she bumped into someone who's too busy reading his acceptance letter to Beacon to watch where he's walking as well.

 _Crash_!

She fell flat on her butt, _owing_ from the sudden collision. Before she could even open her eyes, a hand was hastily offered to her. Up that arm lead to a blond fool who was smiling apologetically, looking flustered beyond belief for knocking her down.

"I'm sorry!" Jaune cried, laughing awkwardly. "I wasn't looking where I was going! It was a total accident! Please forgive me!"

Peering up, Ruby smiled, glad for some chivalry in this awful world. She accepted his hand, enjoying the way he pulled her up. "Don't worry about it! It was both our faults! I wasn't looking where I was going, either."

Jaune sighed. "Still, as a guy I have to be more careful. Knocking a lady down is very rude of me and should never have happened."

Ruby really liked this blonde's gallantry, her eyes shined with unrestraint joy. He definitely showed way more charisma than that dumb jerk. Even if people did say that chivalry was dead, it was still nice and kind to run into a guy who still lived in the old ways. Ruby Rose was a sucker for those old ways.

Giggling, Ruby peered over to the Beacon acceptance letter crushed up in his hand, a reflex from crashing into her. Her attitude got better as she wiped the letter out of his hand, jumping up for joy.

"Oh! You're going to Beacon? Me too!" Ruby yelled excitingly. She pushed the letter back into his chest. "My name's Ruby Rose! I can't wait for next week! It's going to be so awesome!"

Jaune didn't fully share in her excitement, afraid he might mention his forged transcripts. Having seen how young that other dude looked, working for the bad guys no less; Jaune couldn't help but think he'd dodged some bullet while being forced to take another one. The guy looked out of place there, but Jaune's just happy that wasn't him stuck there. Still, it left a decent hole in his chest filled with doubt and lingering emotions of skepticism.

Even still, Ruby's obviously waiting for him to throw his own two cents. "Ah, I'm Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!"

Ruby tilted her head, hiding her adorable smile. "Do they? Do they really?"

"I don't know." Jaune shrugged, smiling in what he hoped to be heroic. He leaned over Ruby, being much taller than her. "Do they?"

Breaking off her façade, Ruby laughed at Jaune, not noticing the Arc's confidence plummet. She found his pickup line cheesy and overly confident. Funny enough, they still work, and she found out that she did in fact like it.

"I'm kidding..." she smiled. "It does roll off the tongue. I like it." Humming to herself, Ruby stepped closer. "So Beacon, huh? You ready to kick butt and become heroes!"

Again, Jaune didn't exactly share in her enthusiasm, but he did throw a halfhearted fist up. "As ready as I'm ever going to be." Remembering how they both weren't looking where they were going, Jaune asked. "So what's got you sight-seeing?"

Recalling her reason for crashing into him, Ruby pouted. "Oh... I'm just for some place that sells Dust for cheap. But everywhere is so expensive, and all because of dumb thieves stealing it all! It's so... dumb!"

Feeling her anger, Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out a few Dust shards he brought from home. In hindsight, not one of his better ideas, Crocea Mors couldn't even utilize the power of Dust. Jaune's not even sure on how to make Dust work. Another problem for the Arc, but he's not complaining that much. In all honesty, he should've known better.

"Oh! I have some Dust. I don't use it. I brought it from home. You can have it. Consider it an apology for bumping into you." He pushed them into Ruby's hand. "I know it's not much, but it's better than—!"

"Oh thank you, thank you!" Ruby yelled, hugging Jaune in a tight hug. She definitely likes his chivalrous streak. "You have no idea how much I needed this. You're the best! But are you sure... you don't have to if you don't want to."

Jaune laughed with an awkwardly pause. "It's no problem. What are friends for?"

Ruby picked up on the undertone of his statement, seeing the question for what it was. She slid up to him; smile brighter than the sun and attitude better as well. After the past few days she had, Jaune proved to be the ray of sunshine she needed to feel better. And having a friend here sounded better than relying on Yang all the time.

"Yup! _Friends_! You wanna go explore Vale some more? I've only been here a few days."

Jaune grinned, leading the way. "Me too! I just got here! With Beacon just around the corner, I figured I take in the sights. And let me tell you, this kingdom is big. Like really, really big! A guy can get lost here."

Ruby followed Jaune, hiding her hands behind her back. She listened to him ramble with a good heart, enjoying Jaune's rant about their not being enough signs scattered around the kingdom. Life may be unfair sometimes, but other times it's completely perfect. Maybe her day wasn't totally ruined after all. That dumb jerk may have evaded justice twice, but at least she got to meet Jaune because of it.

...

Hunched over a metal table, Ron looked over the crudely written notes he had taken. Off to the side was a pile of junk he knew little to nothing to do with. Next to him were Roman's cane and the Lotus Blade. His weapon's hovering over his shoulder, looking between the notes, pile of equipment, and Roman's cane, silent throughout the entire exchange. An hour passed by without either of them noticing, and Roman's entering the room, whistle loud and echoing.

Roman leaned over Ron's hunched body. "So... got my weapon ready?"

Ron threw his head back, groaning. "Cut me some slack! I'm not going to have it done in a day! What am I? A miracle worker?" Ron waved his hand off. "Besides, you never told me what you wanted added to your cane. That would help, a lot."

Smirking, Roman kept his demands simple. He pulled out a blueprint from his coat pocket, dropping it onto Ron's desk. "This. I want this."

Grabbing the paper, Ron's eyes roam over the design. He couldn't make out the applications behind most of it, but he did understand the function, kind of hard not to with the notes of the previous owner being scribbled on top. The idea of his cane being twice as powerful with a stronger barrel coating and increase speed sounded perfect out loud. The actually implications to make such a weapon was still lost to him, but that's what Mystical Monkey Magic was for. And now that he knew what Roman wanted, well, it's not so impossible anymore.

Grabbing the Lotus Blade, Ron willed the weapon to turn into the blueprint design. A bright light later and Ron and Roman were looking at the cane Roman wanted. It's simple in color, nothing too crazy for just a design test. And Ron willed the cane to float and then break apart; piece by piece until all the parts to create such a weapon was before them, floating in the air to be note taken.

Roman's beside himself. "So..."

Sighing, Ron grabbed a piece of metal, hoping his very limited knowledge of algebra sufficed for what needs to be done. "Give me a few hours."

Slapping Ron the back, Roman left the room, leaving the door wide open. Ron, on the other hand, grabbed Roman's weapon and began to take it apart. Luckily, the Lotus Blade watched over him, stopping him every now and again from removing features that didn't need to be removed. When all the corrected pieces were torn off, Ron grabbed sheets of metal and wiring, beginning the impossible task of science. Fortuitously enough, he had good old magic to help him along.

...

When Ron stepped out of the room a few hours later, he's covered in oil and grime, his hair's going everywhere and there's smoke on the tips of locks. The Lotus Blade's proudly strapped to his back with Roman's new and improved cane resting in his hands. It lacked color, a feature Roman personally would have to fix, but as long as it functioned the way he wanted it to, then there's no real problems that need to be addressed.

Tossing him the cane, the Master Criminal caught it and did a quick reload of Dust rounds, and promptly aimed it outside. His intended target's a random tanker. Firing, the blast moved twice as fast, packing three times the firing power than before. The poor tanker's actually flung a bit back, rolling on the ground with a giant hole where metal used to be. Neo actually ran over to check the damage, blinking in surprise before throwing Roman a quick thumbs up.

Ron whistled, having no idea how powerful he made the blasted thing. "I'm glad I'm not on the wrong end of that."

Holding his cane with an innocent glare, Roman looked over to Ron. "This is way more kick than what I asked for."

"What?" Ron challenged with a lazy shrug of his shoulders. "You don't like it?"

A smirk formed on Roman's face, answering Stoppable's question. He leaned on the cane, impressed by the large hole in the tanker. "No, no, you already went through all the trouble. Be a shame not to accept such fine craftsmanship."

Showing no emotion, Ron dropped himself on the couch, exhausted from dodging all the almost-explosions during the making of Roman's new cane. Thank goodness he wore mission gloves all the time, or he would've definitely burned himself a few times. His mission outfit also proved vital, protecting him from static discharge. Don't even get him started with how many times the Lotus Blade saved his butt.

"So..." Ron yawned, watching the sun set in the horizon. "What now?"

Grabbing the rare, black Dust shard from the table, Roman smirked and attached the Dust shard into a hidden compartment in the curve of the handle of his cane. An ominous sensation began to build in Ron's bones, but his curiosity overcame it all. Soon enough, Roman's clicking the Dust in place, pacing over to Ron with a confident smirk that spoke of power and control.

"Now..." Roman trailed. "Now we have a job to get ready for."

Adding some Aura to the handle, both Ron and Neo felt a sudden pull grab their souls. Neo's more in touch to her Aura, so the effect's stronger on her, but even Ron with his little training in Aura affected him. Not only that, but the nearby Dust shards were all acting out, dulling in color ever so slowly until they're one shade away from black. At that point, they remain fixated at those shades. They're essentially a complete absence of light.

Feeling his dormant Mystical Monkey Powers react more, Ron frowned, grabbing a random Ice Dust shard. "What's happening? It's freaking me out!"

Roman's smirk widened. "That is all thanks to this little guy here." Revealing the Dust shard, he laughed. "There's a reason this is so rare. Every once in a while a Black Dust shard is unearthed. And it has the power to disrupt Aura and Dust in about a hundred feet radius."

Ron asked the question both Neo and him had. "Exactly how rare is that Dust?"

Roman fixed the shard back into his cane. "This is only the fifth piece that's ever been found. That's how rare this little gem is."

Ron raised a brow. No wonder that place they stole it from was state-of-art. Only magic could break into that shop and steal _that_ Dust shard. Now Ron knew Neo wouldn't have been able to pull of that job, at least not without putting herself in grave danger. Still, this was just another problem Ron saw with society, both here and in his own world. People always tended to brag what they had; this included rare, valuable items that the public shouldn't have knowledge of.

Dropping the weaken ice shard, Ron focused on his Aura, truly feeling his Aura disrupted in a way. It was like a cold hand was gripping him by the neck, squeezing just tight enough to let air pass. Good thing he had more than one power to bank on, one that didn't seem to be affected at all by Roman's new accessory.

Understanding the mechanics behind it, Ron smiled. "With that... all Dust within a hundred foot radius is useless. Badical!" What needed no words was how this Dust was going to help stick a fork in Cinder "So when are we leaving! I'm feeling feisty! Booyah!"

Checking the setting sun, Roman went over and put his fedora back on. A dark smile encased his features, shadows loomed to his center, and Neo admired his evilness. His new cane and power really tipped the scales in his favor. His new left-hand only reinforced his power against Cinder, and their experience engulfed that of Cinder's henchmen in the darkest shadows, only this time, they have their own little ball of light to lead them through the shadows themselves.

"Get ready to leave in about half an hour. I don't want any delays."

"Any henchmen?" Ron asked.

Roman thought about it, truly, purposely thought about it, and came to the perfect conclusion. "No. This one is going to be a team exercise. Get ready, kiddies. The fun's only beginning."

Ron sighed, ready as he'd ever be for this job. Neo ran up to Ron, sliding up beside him. Without even needing to ask, he handed her the Lotus Blade, transforming the weapon into her favorite death ray to play with. Sadly enough, she's running out of boxes and junk to vaporize, and Ron feared she'd make him go out and collect more stuff to destroy. If that wouldn't be a waste of his time, then he's a monkey's uncle.

Half an hour took an unbearable amount of time to pass, but finally the moment arrived with the sun fully set in the horizon. They load up in a Bullhead Ron didn't know Roman had lying around, and they're off. No words were said between the three of them for various reasons.

One, at this point Roman didn't need to tell them how to rob a Dust shop, and he's too busy messing around with his new weapon, painting the colors he wanted to mix-and-match. Two, Neo's eating some of her ice-cream—which she had yet to share—completely enthralled by the Neapolitan flavor. Ron knew there's a correlation in there, somewhere. And three, Ron, oddly enough, was finding the idea of doing another mission exhilarating. Most likely all these heist and stakeouts have reminded him of his former life. He didn't _want_ to think that's the real reason, but the sidekick didn't like lying to himself. Not anymore. Not when there's no one to impress.

Landing down on the roof of the building across the Dust shop, Ron tilted his head at the target. It's a simple Dust shop with a non-simple name.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow?" Ron choked, holding back a laugh. "What? Did they rip that off from that old movie?"

Roman blinked at Ron. "What?"

Just remembering that this was a different world, Ron laughed quietly. "Uh, never mind."

Sliding down the fire escape, the trio walked over to the Dust shop, all innocent and non-threatening. Ron's heart was racing. Just like every mission before this, he always questioned his life choices that got him here, but this small moment of thought and what if was always a short-lived adventure, because soon they're entering the shop with a soft jingle of the bell, alerting their presence to the old man manning the counter.

Roman didn't beat around the bush and pointed his cane at the surprise old-timer, smirking with a case waiting to be filled with all their Dust. "Just make this simple and hand over everything you got. No need for money." The old guy tried to stand his ground, but Roman fired a round of his new and improved cane at the Dustless side of the store, creating a large hole for all to see. "Now!"

"Did you really have make a hole right there? There's bound to be people coming now." Ron asked, grabbing the Dust vials from off the shelves. He's loading them up alongside the panicked man, quickening the job. "And more people equals bad."

"Don't worry about it..." Roman grinned, pointing at Neo. "We have a Neo!"

Ron found it hard to argue with that reasoning, and settled to lean easy on the counter. True to Roman's word, Neo made the man move faster with the tip of her umbrella aimed at the poor dude's throat. Her sadistic smile was one Ron's seen many times on both Shego's and Monkey Fist's face. And the sidekick found it sick and wrong that he sort of missed that devilish grin.

 _Crash_!

Roman hardly bat an eye to the way a red blur crashed through the display window and tackled Ron. He glared impassively over to the area where the crash ended, instantly recalling that red cloak from a few nights before. Failing to see his left-hand in any danger, Roman resumed stealing the rest of the Dust, knowing Ron could handle Red back there. And if push came to shove, they have a Neo!

Opening his eyes, Ron found his blue orbs coming face-to-face with the passionate, silvery ones he'd come to know so personally. Fear quickly grabbed him, but soon let him go soon after. And quickly he realized she's holding him down with her weight alone, resting on his chest with her hands used to pin his arms above his head. Ironically enough, it wasn't the first time Ron had ever been in this position. Whenever Kim needed a sparring partner, well, she didn't really give him the option to say _no_. He never won a single fight, but fighting the female body did build up an immunity for certain positions.

Grinning like a fool, Ron laughed. This girl must've heard the explosion caused by Roman. "We have to stop meeting like this. People are gonna talk."

Glaring harder at the jerk, Ruby got ready to throw a powerful fist forward, more than prepared to wipe that smug grin off his face, and maybe a few teeth. Her efforts prove to be all in vain when a random glove grabbed her forearm and threw her back, across the store with a tremendous amount of force. She quickly got up, knocking down merchandise, to find out the glove was a floating entity that threw. Her eyes only narrow more when the glove turned into that sword of his, almost mockingly floating for her eternal displeasure. How could she forget about that sword's power? How could she forget about the sword completely? It's the thing that saved that jerk last time.

Losing his smile, Ron cracked his neck and grumbled. "Three times in a row. Wow, you must _really_ want to be the hero in this story. Too bad you're doing it all wrong. Now! I would've done a sneak attack. Now you've only blown your cover! Good job. I'll give you points for trying, but your technique could use some work. Where's the witty taunt at? The gadgets? Anything? You just charged at me with no game plan!" Ron laughed. "So amateurish."

Hating his taunt, Ruby dashed forward, but was met with a surprise kick from that same Neapolitan looking girl. Roman's feeling awfully generous. Poor Ron didn't look like he wanted to deal with Little Red right now. At the sight of him throwing his hand forward, Neo had jumped to Ron's rescue, being far more of a challenge for the girl with a giant scythe. And to be fair, he's getting tired of Little Red's interference. Neo should be able to push her down a peg or two, if she didn't end up killing her first. Both preferable outcomes, but Ron might not enjoy having Ren's blood on his hands.

So Roman's counting on Neo to break Little Red's fighting spirit.

Taking his good luck with stride, Ron quickly scavenged the rest of the Dust he could physically carry into a bag, and ran outside and back to the Bullhead. His opposition's met with an invisible force holding him in place, floating him in mid-air like some crazy magic. The invisible power then turned him around so he could come face-to-face with an older looking blonde with a riding crop pointed directly at him. She's mean looking, stern in every possible way, shape, and form. And her posture spoke of experience far outside of Ron's league.

She reminded the sidekick of Steve Barkin.

"Give up." She said with such conviction that it chilled the sidekick to the bone. "You're trapped."

Frowning, Ron grabbed the Lotus Blade, willing it to counter the levitation powers of hers with the magical sword's same power. Doing so allowed him to retouch the ground, but every second Ron could feel this crazy chick's power bearing down on him. Without even needing to ask, Ron knew the Lotus Blade's too busy keeping him grounded to have the power to transform.

How troublesome.

"Not bad!" Ron teased, picking up the bags from the floor. "But there's never been a trap that could hold me, you know, unless it's a trap-trap."

Surprised he managed to break free, the witch tried to increase her hold over him, but she's met with an equally oppressive force. Then her concentration was completely shot when a powerful and _fast_ projectile was colliding with her, thrusting her far back with an explosive force. Ron barely had time to blink before Roman's stepping out of the shop with a suitcase filled with all the Dust. Then he's tossing the case over to Ron, silently urging him to hurry up while Neo and him take care of the nuisances.

To even see Roman take charge made Ron swiftly pick up the remaining Dust from off the floor, and reattach the Lotus Blade to his back. And he's almost done until a third party's stepping onto the plate, grabbing his wrist with a shaky hand.

Looking up, Ron found that same blond guy that Roman sold fake transcripts to, holding his wrist in a show of weak force. It didn't look like he wanted to be here and Ron fully understood why. After all, this dude did buy his way into a Huntsmen school. His skills couldn't be that bueno. And his eyes show way more fear than the sidekick's ever had. In some ways, Ron could almost see this guy as his parallel opposite in this world. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so downright sad and depressing. Almost like the mirror he's looking at was broken and deformed for his own viewing displeasure.

Standing up, Ron ignored the guy's hold, throwing him an easy smirk. "And what are _you_ doing here? I know you _can't_ fight."

Jaune remained silent, knowing Ruby's going to need all the help she could get. An Arc never abandoned a friend, but who the third person was or why she jumped in to help was a total mystery to him, even more so than Ruby charging headfirst into battle when she saw the place getting robbed. And as much as he wanted to run away, the Arc code wouldn't let him.

"I can't just let you rob the place."

Ron sighed and tried to level with him. "Face it, dude, you're out of your league. Just let me go and no one has to get hurt."

Ron Stoppable didn't actually know if this guy was out of his league, but mind games were a sidekick's best friend. Just ask Shego back in his world. She loved to toy with Kim and Dr. Drakken. And knowing about his fake transcripts really leveled the playing field.

Jaune answered with his own battle cry, bringing Crocea Mors down at Ron, only to be met with a sword in midair while Ron had yet to move a single muscle. He's staring at Jaune nonchalantly, not surprised by the slightest from his sword floating to block his. The amusement in the sidekick's eyes was hard to miss, and so were his fists connecting with Jaune's stomach, torso, and then chin, all in that order. Without any of his arms being able to block the swift strikes, Jaune staggered back, wobbling between each step.

Disoriented, Jaune's then flung away by his opponent, losing whatever grip he had on the sidekick. Meanwhile, Ron paid him hardly any mind, glancing back to see Neo taking care of that Red girl and Roman dealing with that cold witch. Neo's having little problems, far more skilled than Little Red, in fact, she's practically toying around with her. Roman's a little more pushed back, but he's holding his own just fine, that black Dust was probably evening the playing field. Ron would expect nothing less from his boss.

Having a job to finish, Ron picked up the bags of Dust from the floor and threw the down blond a cautious glance with the Lotus Blade pointed at his fearful eyes. "Seriously dude, it's not even funny. Just stop while you're ahead. You could really get hurt. And I for one don't need that emotional baggage."

Groaning, Jaune raised his weapon with a fake bravo. "You don't know how strong I am."

Ron would give him that. "True, but you aren't strong enough to get into that Huntsmen school of yours. So you _can't_ be that good at fighting. You're like a henchman, maybe."

Jaune spat out some blood, getting back up with Crocea Mors pointed at Ron. "What kind of guy robs Dust shops?!"

Ron rolled his eyes, using the Lotus Blade's will to flick Jaune's weapon back with simple ease. The action stunned the Arc. "And what kind of guys sneaks his way into a fighting school? We can point fingers all day, but it won't solve anything. Just. Stay. Down."

Jaune didn't know what to say to the warning, but he didn't have to. Ruby's suddenly flung to his person, crashing right into him with a powerful push. They're thrown back, away from the fight. Ron actually took the time to use the distraction to glance back and find Neo waving at him, evil grin and all. Her grin turned darker as she rushed to Roman's aid, umbrella out and about. The action proved spirit raising enough for Ron to get his act together.

Smiling lowly, Ron grabbed the Dust off the floor and hightailed it out of there with his mad running away skills. He's certain that Neo would help Roman win the fight. And within minutes of getting into the Bullhead, his certainty proved right. The duo return with smug grins on their face and with Ron's stolen Dust to show for it. A fire had broken out in the Dust shop they stole from, and the airship took to the air to enjoy the show. They're just out of reach from any that witch's control, who's glaring bashfully at the trio.

Leaning out the airship, Neo waved bye with her fingers, winking her eye at the defeated three. Soon Vale's finest were on the scene, watching the Bullhead with all the stolen Dust take off into the night sky. None of their airships could make it in time to stop them, and the trio had left behind no trail that could be tracked. In the end, Glynda Goodwitch's forced to confront Miss Rose once more for answers, taking her blond companion along for the interrogation.

She's going to have to update Roman Torchwick's criminal profile. Apparently, he was the one who stole that incredibly rare Dust. How he did it remained a mystery for the combat professor, one she hoped Ruby Rose might have the answer to. To have such a powerful piece of Dust, equally powerful weapon, and two subordinates with unusual fighting abilities—especially that blond kid—Glynda couldn't take any chances.

"Miss Rose..." Glynda glared, flicking her riding crop hard. Both the teens shrink under her hawkish gaze. "We meet again. I'm sure you have some more answers to share with me."

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Edited **\- 1/8/2018**


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